August 8, 2025 • 62 mins
🚨 BREAKING: The Hammer's most DEVASTATING shoot interview moments EXPOSED! 🚨 Greg Valentine unleashes 40+ years of EXPLOSIVE wrestling secrets in this career-spanning bombshell compilation! 🔥 From his legendary feuds to backstage WARS, Valentine drops the most SHOCKING truths in wrestling history! 💣 THE HAMMER'S TOP 10 EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS: Hulk Hogan's backstage POLITICS that buried his career - The REAL story behind his bloody feud with Roddy Piper - Vince McMahon's broken promises and CONTRACT lies - His violent confrontation with Ric Flair over Women's Championship booking - The steroid scandal WWE covered up in the 80s - Why he HATES modern wrestling and today's "soft" wrestlers - His heated backstage fight with The Ultimate Warrior - The truth about his Figure Four Leglock vs Ric Flair controversy - CM Punk comparisons and AEW's "old school" approach - Roman Reigns burial that will SHOCK WWE Universe 🔥 Valentine holds NOTHING back in these career-defining shoot moments that expose wrestling's dirtiest secrets! This compilation features his most CONTROVERSIAL statements that had wrestling insiders PANICKING! ⚠️ WARNING: Adult content and career-ending revelations inside! DOWNLOAD, SUBSCRIBE, and witness The Hammer destroy wrestling's biggest lies! 🎯
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
One of the big ones was Survivor series in eighty eight.
You were actually you and the Warrior, I think, like
the last two in the ring, so I know you
had worked with them several times in WWF.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I got along with them, and you know, I got
along with anybody, everybody, not just anybody. With everybody. I
made made a point even though I didn't like the
style or whatever. I always knew. My dad always told me,
you just got to work around it, and eventually, you know,
you're going to bring them to your style. Because I
(00:33):
was slow paced. I wasn't out there, and I didn't
set up a bunch of silly high spots, and it
was all with feeling and and I you know, I
know the Ultimate Warrior did the running back and forth
things a lot of times when I worked with him.
You know, I hook up and go for a hold
and wrestle. He's out there running, so I just he
(00:55):
wants to do this. I hate it when they do
criss crosses, by the way, but he would just keep wrong.
I just stopped this. I'm not gonna do this crap,
and I'd stop and I just watch him run back
and forth. I said, well, one thing good about he's
going to get tired, and then I could grab a
hold on him because he's gonna run. He's going to
(01:16):
run out of gas, and I don't care how strong
you are and how pumped up you are and all
that stuff he did. He was blown out before he
even hooked up. But I had a good match with
him on Saturday Night's main event. I remember that one.
We did a thing where I had the shin guard
and and I think Jimmy Hart maybe I didn't have
(01:40):
the shin guard yet, but I know we did something
where it was it was messed up, and he threw
Jimmy Hart on top of me and he got one,
two three, But it was like a messed up finish,
but it didn't hurt me and it was good for him.
So I remember that was probably the biggest stage I have,
But I mean mentioned something about Survivor series didn't work
(02:03):
with the guy too much. But it reminds me of
a story I went to. This is after I left WWE.
I think it was in ninety four, and I went
over for this promotion called World superstar Red WSW something
like that. A guy out in New Jersey and he
(02:27):
booked Jake the Snake. We were all released from ww
or quit or whatever. Say had Jake the Snake. He
had Hercules, and he had myself, and he had the
Ultimate Warrior. And then he had an undercard with a
lot of people I think the Bushwarkers are there, and
a lot of guys that had name value. And so
(02:49):
I remember the Ultimate Warrior. He says. I wasn't wrestling
Outimate Warrior, but I was part of the main event.
I was working with Jake Jake. So he says, Greg,
He goes, you want more money, and I go, more money.
What's up? He goes, well, I want more money, and
(03:09):
it will help because you're in the other main event.
It'll help if we tell this guy we want more
money or we're not going on. And I've never done
this in my life before, never held it up, held
money up. But I know it's been done. But I
didn't have to. I was in WWE, where it was
(03:30):
all trust. But we're in Vienna, this thing is sold out,
and we've been on the road for two weeks and
we're tired. And he goes, I could get you more
money if you stick by me, and I said, sure,
let's go for it. And the guy comes in the
promoter and he says, I can't get this is Vienna, Austria.
(03:54):
I can't get American money over here? What are you
talking about? But it wasn't long before I'd say, I'd
say ten to fifteen minutes later, he come in with
all these halliburtons. Everybody used to have Halli Burtons back
in the day, and they were full of one hundred
dollars bills of money. And I'm not going to say
(04:15):
how much more I got, but it was a significant amount.
And so I never knew Warrior that well before that.
But then, you know, I said, man, you're a hell
of a guy. Thank you. You know, I mean, I
at least doubled or triple my money. And we went
out and wrestled, and you know, I went out and
(04:38):
wrestled Jake and ever since then, I you know, his
fond memories, the Ultimate Warrior, and so sad that he
got put in the Hall of Fame and died a
couple of days later. I was just tragic. But I
had a lot of time for Warrior. He was different,
you know, a smart guy and good memories.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Did you have a chance to talk to him before
his final appearance there.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I saw him at some comic cons and he looked
a lot different. He cut his hair and everything, but all,
you know, just a handshake. How you're doing? My wife
knew his wife and just sad, you know. I saw
him at a few comic cons, but you don't really
(05:26):
have a chance to visit, and he was he was
in a private area, so I had to go seek
him out to shake his hand. But at the WrestleMania
I can't remember which one it was. Yeah, I was
the one in New Orleans, but I'm not sure the number.
(05:46):
I went backstage and saw him there, and then a
couple of days later he's gone, you know, tragic, so
full of life.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, this time in WCW, Goldberg was a big draw there.
How did you see that? What did you think of
that character? His run?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I was there at the time he came out.
He was watching me in Orlando one of the TV tapings,
and he came up to me and he says, really
honored to meet you, Gregg. I'm a big fan. And
I didn't know what kind of push he was going
to get, but I remember, you know, thank you, And
then the push was Kevin Sullivan's idea. And I think
(06:31):
he beat guys in two or three minutes for six
months in a row, right, bam man. He give him
the whatever the hole was and that really got him over.
I mean that's how to get somebody over and get that.
Kevin was Kevin Salivan was a booker, and he got
his ass over. You know, he ended up hurting Brett
(06:53):
Harden a couple of people. But Goldberg is still over
now because of that. People don't forget that. You know
Eddie and he's a good athlete. He's a tough, double tough.
He used to be played with Atlanta Falcons. He's a
tough son of a gun. And he knows how to talk,
and he looks the part. And and Goldberg's a big deal.
(07:17):
He's only fifty or something now, so you know, you
get closer to sixty, it's hard to get in the ring.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
This is kind of random, But do you remy wrestling
on this Heroes of Wrestling pay per view?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh my god? In out of Louisiana a casino.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right casino magic in Saint Louis?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah? Do you remember what? Do you remember
about what in St? Louis, East Saint Louis yes, East
Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Okay, and you wrestled with George Steele. Sherry Martell was
involved in this. She was the manager, I believe.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, she came out and gave me a big wet kiss.
That shocked me. But yeah, it was just a goofy match.
How are you going to wrestle George Steele? You know?
It was a goofy match. I just I was there
for the pay day. I don't know how did it end.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I remember Jake the Snake was supposed to do something,
but I think he was a little inebriated. And then
they kind of called an audible and Yoko Zuna was
somehow involved. Jim Knighthart, Jake may have whipped it out
or something.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh that's when he exposed himself. Jake was drunk. He
was really fucked up. While he was he was high
like five different directions, so he was inebriated. Is that
the word you used? Yeah? And uh, And I don't
remember what I did. It's it didn't matter what I
did with George Steele because I was goofy frigging match. Anyway,
(08:39):
I'm just glad to get the payday. But I heard
about it and they had to switch the main event up,
and everybody was really pissed, but Jake already had his money.
This is sub JABRONI fucking promoter. I wanted to do
a big Hey, I'm there for the payday. I'm always
(09:02):
gonna work the best I can. But how are you
gonna work with George Steele? He's eating turnbuckles? So I'm
just glad. The only thing I remember is Sherry gave
me a real sloppy kiss. God rest her too. And
George Steele. I love George Steele as a person. I
didn't like his wrestling, but he was over you know.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So you wrestled Haystacks up the Spectrum in Philadelphia back
and I think seventy nine.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I'd love to find that match if I could try
it down.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I can't even remember that one. You can't really wrestle
these guys, so it's really up to them what they
want to do. What do you want to do, Haysach.
Do you want to walk around and step on me
or pick me up and slam me? It's basically it's
gonna be a one sided match. What am I gonna
do with him? You know? And I don't want to
(09:58):
knock him out, to speak, because you might not be
able to get back up. He was not in good shape.
But I don't remember that match, so it's hard to
I'm just saying what I would do in a situation
that I would just wrestling very carefully. You can't pull
him out, and you can't. I never like to throw
(10:19):
people to the roads anyway, because that's so you know,
you don't do that in a real fight. So it
had to be a short match.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
You keep everything in the middle of the ring because
you said about the crisscross earlier and how it doesn't
really make sense in a fight. You're not going to
criss cross the ring.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I tried to. Everything is logical to me, and when
when I'm out there, you know, aside from whether they
think wrestling's fixed or not, my part up to the
ending is real, and I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna
talk to my opponent. I'm gonna tell him what I
want to do if he's lost. But it's most of
(10:58):
the guys that I work. But back in that day,
you know they had ring time too, so you don't
need to if you want to call something in there,
you know you can call it, but I didn't. You know,
I didn't like take I hated backdrops. That's a US unlogical.
We throw some guy and give him back. It's just
not wrestling. Body slams is wrestling. Soup lex's wrestling, grabbing arms,
(11:23):
taking people down, all that kind of stuff. That's wrestling,
and that's real. I always wanted to make it look real,
and ninety percent of my shit was real. So the punches,
the chops, I got it. I get on it. Got
into doing a lot of chops because I learned it
(11:43):
from walm Canio beat me to death all the time.
So I ended up learning how to throw the chops
with Rick Flair and all that in the Middle Atlantic area.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Just a few minutes ago, you talked about with Dick
Murdock and Dusty Rhodes. You know, you worked with them
as an opponent and attack partner. How big was Dusty
Rhodes back in the day For fans that don't know.
Till seventy four, I went in. Jack Briscoe actually got
me booked in Florida because he saw me up in Buffalo,
and I was pretty depressed being up there in Buffalo
(12:16):
all the time, and I had a partnership with John
Donnie Fargo, but that was going away, so they brought
me in and my dad actually let me start using
my real name and Greg Valentine. But I wrestled as
his brother, because back in that day, my dad was
(12:37):
in his late forties. He want everybody know how he was.
So I understood that. So I went in there as
his brother. But I went in there with Dusty Rhodes.
I guess he was the booker. Eddie Graham, of course
ran everything, and he was a booker too, a promoter.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Dusty was just Dusty was. He was the American dream.
I mean he he had great interviews, He had so
much charisma. He was. He was what was drawing the
money in Florida. I mean he had a good gang,
a lot a good crew. Shouldn't say gang, but a
good crew of guys. And I was just happy to
(13:21):
be there. And Eddie Graham would actually come and talk
to us before it went out and wrestled, and you know,
he always pieced in different things. You know, put this
in your match, put this in your magic. He was
so articulate and it was a good I learned so
(13:42):
much from Eddie Graham those years nineteen seventy four, we're
going to seventy five, and went to la and then
seventy six I came back to Florida again.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Now that you mention Eddie Graham, could you tell some
of the fans about what kind of innovatory was and
how it was working with him.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, So I didn't work against him, but I worked
for him, and it was great because he really was
interested in the young guys, and he'd show you a
little He wouldn't actually say he had to do all
this stuff in your match, but he would show little
things segments of your match, and you could throw in there.
And the grand brothers, I said, where they started, Eddie
(14:25):
and Jerry. Jerry was a crazy one, Eddie. The Grand
brothers were big time in New York and big time,
big time in New York Tag teams, World Tag Team
Champions in the old w w WF. And so he
(14:46):
went to Florida and became the booker and then actually
bought into the territory there, so he was well seated there.
And then of course he Florida. We had Miami, and
we had we had a lot, We had Fort Myers,
we had Orlando, Tallahassee, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Tampa, Tampa
(15:14):
Army and we wrestled in Saint Pete two in the
big building near Bayfront Center, and it was a great place,
a great place to be. I mean, we worked probably
every night since Sunday. But you know, it was all
mainly short trips. Sometimes we'd rent we'd rent Old Blue.
(15:37):
It was a DC three airplane. We'd fly to Miami
because Miami was a long, long trip and we usually
did TV on Wednesdays, so by the time he got
out of the interviews, you'd have to jump in the
car and drive and barely make it. So a lot
of us would just pile in this this we called
it Old Blue, and we'd d C three or something
(16:00):
like that, and we'd fly down there. A couple of
scary moments on that, you know, the back door flew
open one time, but we all flew down there and
did the Miami thing, went back and flew back to Tampa.
A lot better than driving because that's three hundred and
fifty miles and that was before Alligator Alley was even completed.
(16:23):
It was just a little two lane road, so it
was a rough a rough track. In the cars back
in that day.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And you didn't have all the interstates and highways were
built up, and you have mapped Alligator Alley.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
You could go down to say Sarasota and Sarah, Fort
Mars and Naples right and then you'd cut left and
it was Now it's a big, huge freeway called Alligator Alley,
But back in that day, in the seventies, it was
a two lane road and it was Alligatory Alley, and
(16:59):
you had alligator crawling out a lot of times. That's
where I saw my first alligator other than the zoo,
and so we usually just flew. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
We worked with Andrea the Giant a lot from the
mid seventies and on. And did you meet him in Japan?
Where did you meet Andrea?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yes, I met him in Japan. And this is when
I was still in LA working for Olympic Wrestling out there,
and Los Angeles got on the airplane they booked me
in Japan. It was for six weeks. Well, but I
met Andrea. It was a big seven forty seven. It
was empty and I was in the back and the
(17:43):
stewardess came back said, there's a couple of gentlemen on
the first class in the upper deck because there's an
old seven forty seven had two decks in the front.
They want you to come up there and see them.
So I went up there and it was Arnold, Arnold
Skoln and Andre the Giant, and then I had a
great time. They were playing cribbage and I was drinking Kognac,
(18:05):
and I don't even remember going through customs. I was
plastered on cogniac. They practically had to carry me out
at the airplane. But I had a great time. Andre
was there for three weeks, so I got to hang
out with him scolling. He went back sooner, but me
and Andre would hit the Koreean barbecues together and we
(18:26):
had a great time and a funny story. One time
we couldn't get a taxi because he was so big,
and so I told him to hot around the corner.
I waved the fat taxi down and then the guy
sees and Andre sneaks around. The guy sees Andre coming out,
and he gets back in his cab and starts to
take off, and Andre grabs a bumper and list it
(18:48):
and the wheels are spinning like that. It was like
something out of Avinger movie or something. Wow. And the
guy got out of the cab and took off running.
The cab driver took out a bus to get us back,
or a big panel truck or something like that.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Holy shit, I mean you, uh, and you didn't just
hang out with him on that tour. Also, you were
tag team partners of them on several occasions.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, and uh, I got you know, being he was
working for New York and so was I, and Vince
took over his bookings from Frank Vauwa, the Canadian guy
that had his contract. So Vince took up took over
all of his stuff, and he still won other places
like Ndwian stuff. But I remember this for really, like
(19:39):
when me and Flair were world champions in the early
eighties in in the mid Atlantic and the Carolinas, they
would have Wahoo McDaniel and Andre the Giant go against
Flair myself, So Flair would always have to go on
there and to get the Giant slammed because he took
(20:00):
bumps all the time. So they wanted me to come
in and do the same thing, and I tried, but
it threw my saccarelliac out all the fucking time. I
couldn't walk, And uh, but we made it through. There
was a lot of matches against Andre and whoever it
was either Wall who I mean, you know Wahoo is
(20:21):
bad enough to wrestle.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And you have Andre too, and you didn't just wrestle
them in tag you had solo matches with him too.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah. Yeah, I only wrestled him one time by myself
and tag team a lot of times and in Battle Royals,
but only one time it was me against him, single match,
and it was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at a college there.
We always had a good crowd there too. It's a
(20:50):
nice building. And I saw I was wrestling Andre the Giant.
I go, you're kidding me. And he's back there drinking
bottles of wine and Arnold Skola and they're playing cribbage
again and he's drinking beaujulet. I had many other bows.
You ate about six or a six pack of big wines.
(21:11):
And then he gets into the ring and I go
to the ring first, and so he gets into the
ring and he's like, he gets in the ring and
he kind of sits on the second rope there in
the corner, and he go, what's wrong with you? Boss?
And I go, nothing, boss. So I went to hook
(21:31):
him for him, and he grabbed me and he kind
of rolled me around and he sat on top of
me in the corner. You know, he's like, imagine yourself
going out there and you go, here's this big cow.
But he's up on all he's up on his second,
his second, his back legs, and he's just you know,
(21:53):
instead of all four as he stands on their way.
So how are you gonna wrestle that? That's what Andre
giant was. So he just grabbed moved me, set me down,
and sat on me in the corner and let a
big giant fart and all the people love it was
probably that got It wasn't running fart, but it was
one of those wine farts, you know, m smells like
(22:15):
Merlot or could be Bouzu lay. So he I says,
just beat me, please take it. But he he messed
around with me for a while and he beat me.
Great experience. But you know he got me back because
in the Battle Royals, I used to sneak up behind him.
(22:38):
There's like twenty twenty guy about twenty men Battle Royals,
and I'd sneak up behind him and I'd hit him
real hard on his back and he turned around, so
he got me back.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Mentioned those Battle Royals. There was one that you were
with with Andre the Giant in Houston. I wanted to
ask you about. And I don't know if you remember
this because you've had so many, but there was one
of the San Houston Coliseum. It was you Gino Hernandez
the Spoiler, Andre the Giant and Bruiser Brody was the
winner in this one.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And I think you have at least one match with
Bruis of Brody that I can find, where you and
you were with Harley Race wrestled Bruis of Brody and
David von Eric. Do you have any memories that you
could share about Bruis of Brody inside the ring and outside.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know something? You know? You said that and then
a couple of people said that I did wrestle. I
didn't realize I wrestled him. Now. It must have been
before the Puerto Rical thing or something. Nice guy, a
tough guy. But I don't, you know, I just don't remember.
I don't remember the experience really, you know, I really don't.
(23:46):
I remember most everything. I don't remember that.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's hard to have thousands of matches and really narrow down.
I guess one two.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I don't remember that one made me knock me out,
standing up as he was a tough guy.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
But you guys to get along outside the ring, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I got along with you know, I got along with everybody,
and you and you want to stay. I had people
that were you know, I would get pissed off in
a ring sometimes and people knew that. So but it
wasn't like I was a loaded gun, you know. I
got along with everybody.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I want to mention this that people might not know
that you were not only were you on the very
first starcade, but you were on the first seven WrestleManias
as well. Can you talk about just leading up to
WrestleMania one.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I've been wrestling Tito NonStop and and we were doing
good business all over the country, and I had Tito's
icy belt, and so he's still chasing me for the belt,
and they were thinking, well, if they put Tito against
me at the first WrestleMania there, they're gonna hurt Tito
(24:57):
if Tito don't win the belt back. But they didn't
want I want to switch the belt yet because we were
doing such good business and I was doing good business
with a belt, so they put jack Yard Dog in there.
He was a great performer and everything, but he he
wasn't the a wrestler wrestler like I was or Tito.
(25:17):
You know, holds and all this. It was kind of
a lot of the gimmick stuff. But he was over
and you know, you get down on his legs and
gets like a dog and get down on his knees
and charge you with the head butt. But I went
for it and it worked out. It worked out. It
was It was a great match. It wasn't one of
my best ones, but it was. It was good enough
(25:39):
and jy D God bless him. I think that's about
the only time I ever wrestled him, was just a
wrestl Ania one. And then Tito ran in and stewed
me off. But I beat him with a foot on
the rope. I'm just glad I made it through because ja,
why d's a gimmick guy. I liked to wrestle, grab
(26:00):
grab a If I grab a hold on he'll look
at me like, what are you doing now? Is this wrestling?
Are you grabbing a hold on me? You know, it
was just like, you know, it's a different thing. So
but I they when I wrestled somebody like that, that's
a gimmick, but a tough guy for real, But I
mean a gimmick and he was over. You just have
(26:21):
to learn how to work around it and and work
around it and ended up being a good match. The
big main event there that night was I believe it
was Hogan and orned Off against Piper and Orton. I
think that was it. Okay, something like that, Yeah, and
(26:44):
that was just a big deal. That was That's when
wrestling really became. Uh. They had the connection with the
rock and roll and they had the connection with Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So do you remember anything about that night the first WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I remember. I remember meeting Billy Martin because I'm a
big wrest uh uh baseball fan. I'm a big baseball fan,
and I met him. I never got to meet Muhammad
al league Is. I loved Muhammed Ali and the rope
and dope and I used to wrestle kind of liked that.
(27:20):
I mean, emulet coin of emulated his rope of dope
with my wrestling when I'm boxing a little bit. So
he's my idol. But I didn't get to see him.
But I met Billy Martin and I didn't meet Liberaci,
but I met Cindy Laupler still know her very well
from there. Yeah, so that was a great experience.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
WrestleMania one fantastic And it wasn't long after this started
the Dream Team. Were there talks at you know, during
this WrestleMania or did this just kind of pop up
afterwards when you went to the tag with Brutus.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Well, before I lost the Icy Belt, I was wrestling
in tag matches with Brutus, So they they had an idea.
George Scott was a booker once again in Vans and
they and Pat was in there, two pep patters. They
ended up, let's put these guys. See how these guys
worked together, and it worked out really good. So when
(28:14):
we had our match with Winham and Rotunda when we
beat him for the belts, we'd already had quite a
few matches together, so it worked out real well. We
had a good chemistry.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
You went back to WCW and you had a lot
of big Monday nightro matches in the nineties. I think
the first one back he had was with Randy Savage,
a guy that you wrestled and at the Wrestling Four
where he wanted to become a champion.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It was good there and I put him over, but
it was it was it was a good way that
I did it, and he sold for me. No, I
had had a good relationship with Randy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Were you close with the Pafo family at all?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yes? Yes, yes, I in fact, they came over to
my house. Knew Lannie, and I knew uh I forget
the father's name, Angelo Po. I knew their mother. Yeah,
we socialize those people. Those are good people.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Do you have any memories of that match that you
had with him at WrestleMania? For you wrestled twice that night.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I wrestled Steamboat and went over Steamboat and that was
That was great. Steamboat did the job for me. That
was awesome. So I went back with Savage. I remember,
you know, it turned out good. He likes to grab
guys back in the dress room before you go out
and plan the whole frigging match. I just stayed the
(29:43):
fuck away from him because I don't do that. Nothing
against Randy. I knew that they wanted me to put
him over, and I did that, but I didn't. I
don't plan. I don't like to plan my matches. He
wanted to start a certain mat. I said, okay, that's good,
start like that, but after that, let me call it
(30:03):
and then then you can get your duke raised.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
So you were able to lead as you're.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Supposed to do that. Yeah, that's the way it is.
But I don't like planning out ship. I don't like
doing that. Like when the British Bulldog said, we were
they they used to like to do that ship and
they get beefcake over in the corner and they'd be
going over the whole match and then they I said, no,
(30:30):
you know, no, I don't talk about my match. You know,
I don't do that. You know, it's all ad live
out there. Talk to the guy, you know, that's that's
the way you do it. Talk to you know, you
do a little shop talk. But I don't like planning
out and you know what, I always tell them that
I can't remember it, and so that way I can't
(30:52):
remember that eye spot. I can't. I hate high spots,
by the way.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
And you can also listen to face ends and actually
judge the match and what they're here.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You know, it's gotta be a live because people could
tell if it's contrived and preconceived you know.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Isn't it like a comedy show where you have a
comedian that goes out. He's trying to do the same
set in front of different audiences, but it doesn't always play.
Sometimes you have to switch it up.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
On the fly. You got you gotta you know. That's
why I don't have a plan. I go out there.
I feel it. I know how the thing's gonna end
up if I have a real heated uh angle with somebody,
like like with Tito where I broke his leg and
now he's one of the first matches that I come back.
(31:40):
You know, I'm gonna let Tito run after me, and
I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna let him. You gotta
put his ship over first because he's gonna be mad.
It's all psychological. Didn't you take over?
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Did you enjoy this this run here in w CW
when you went back? And will you promise anything during.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The second time? Yes? Actually, Hogan got helped get me
in the end too, And it was Eric Bischoff as
a booker. I got a good contract, a good deal
and no promises. They put me over on w c
W Surday night, and I would I would like I
(32:18):
put Lugo over one time in matra Man, but it
was my finishes and uh so you know, you can
lose gracefully. So I did that. That was on the
big stage, and I would come back on Saturday nights,
Saturday Night's w CW Saturday Night whatever it's called, and
(32:40):
uh and they would I would win matches there. So
so it kept me borderline. But they eventually eventually let
me go because I was I was not being used
that much. It's I'd sit around a lot. So I
end us, you know, start doing independence because I didn't
want to stay home all the time. Make money every weekend,
(33:01):
I'm sitting home. So I did that, but the eventually
let me go. I don't know why. I just said, okay,
they sent me a letter. You you you won't be
working for us in two weeks an hour or something.
Hey fine, you know, but it was it was good
exposure and I had had a good time at that
short time.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
There, and I was able to probably help out the
independence and.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I went right back to the independence and independence really
we're taking off again. And then I went back to
Japan and went back to Europe. So it was all good.
And then you know, then It eventually ended up being
autograph sessions all over the place, comic cons that that
came in, So there was all kinds of stuff to do, a.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Lot of money on that circuit too. Yeah, you also
wrestled the Giant early on in his career. Yes, do
you remember anything about about this match?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
I remember it was outdoors. Was that in Disney Disneyland
or Disney World? And it was outdoors? And I went
up on the top rope to give him an elbow,
and he goes, how about if we do this? So
he grabbed me by the throat on the top rope
and gave me that big giant slam. So that's how
(34:22):
I went out. That was a good way to go out,
at least I've watched reruns of that. That was a
good way to do the job. A big friggin guy.
How am I going to beat him anyway? You know?
A nice guy. I loved Paul to death.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I don't know if you heard about the news, but
since nineteen ninety nine he is with WWI and has
it this week he's now been signed to ADW.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
No, I didn't hear that. Yeah, that's good for AW.
I liked those people. They brought me in just to
set in a dog collar match and paid me well.
And I liked it. I liked it very much. Back
then we got paid cash every night. We didn't have
to wait for a corporate check. Money, money in the
(35:06):
hand every night for WWF. He said, it's cash only.
What kind of paydays are we talking about like in
the seventies you? Oh wow, Well, I remember, we're still
getting cash now. I did that. I did the thing
where I broke Tito's leg right, and he had a
(35:27):
legitimate bad leg injury, had to have a operation, so
they put me in on him and used the figure
for his leg was already messed up, and I messed
it up even more. But when we actually got out
on the road and started wrestling, he's fighting me for
the title. I remember. We went to Detroit in the afternoon,
(35:54):
sold it out. Joe Louis Arena or Cobo one of
those two got forty five hundred dollars cash. Boom boom,
boom boom. Got on a private airplane, flew to Boston wrest.
I got the Boston Garden, the Old Garden, same thing
sold out. I think it was another four ground close
(36:17):
to it. Whatever, So you get gods of money on you.
They went two other shows later on Philadelphia Baltimore. You know,
you can make twenty grand a weekend, thirty ground a weekend.
This is before the checks. The only one, the only
one that you would get paid, but a corporate check
(36:37):
was massive Square Garden. You didn't get cash there. You
could get an advance, but that was it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
And there is a lot of money for twenty twenty one.
I mean, I can't imagine what it was in the
seventies and eighties when you're getting these kind of checks.
Who four thousand dollars a twenty thousand, thirty thousand for
a weekend.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
That's that's crazy, It's fabulous. Yeah, this is in the eighties.
This is this money. I have this money. Of course
back in mid Atlantic, we always got a check every week,
but I loved that cash every night. Wow, that's bat there.
Who doesn't love cash, right? I mean Las Vegas the
(37:15):
home with cash? We like cash here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
We had a fan actually asked, because you did the
first Star KD, you did the first wrestle man, they
wanted to know what the paydays were between the two.
Were they comparable or do you remember? I know it's
a long time ago, but.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Uh, I don't remember what I made for Starkad. I
mean it was good, but I remember russell Mania one
was real good, so you know, but it was a check.
It's twenty five grand or something like that. It was good,
and I wouldn't I was Intercontinental Championship match with the
(37:55):
Dog and you had the tag team match win them
in a tunnel I think against Chikh and Bowcup, and
then you had another tag match at the top was
hul Cogan and mister T and Piper and Orno. So
I was so I was third in the top. It
(38:16):
was a good, good payday.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Are they still doing the payouts based on how you're
drawing on the card at this point? This is before
where everyone's kind of getting like before contracts and all
that other stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, so I never had a contract all these years.
You know, I don't know what percentage they were paying
out of the gate, but if you were in the
main event, you would get more than a semi main
event or the special match, and the lower guys you know,
would get a good payday, but it wouldn't be like
we were getting. So they yeah, so they know they
(38:49):
figured the main a bit is a draw, that's the
main draw, and then and then the match is stacked underneath.
They would help, you know, it's called supporting card and
you would get a good hunkt of money too. You know.
Hawk Cogan had his own deal, so I don't know
what he made, yeah, but most of the other guys were,
(39:10):
you know, five percent of the house or whatever it
turned out being. And the Carolinas, you know it was
it was a check. I think it might have been
a check every two weeks. You know, it was a while,
but it was always good, good money there. Jim Crockett
paid and I know he just passed away. He was
(39:32):
a good friend of mine, Jim Crockett Jr. But he
paid good. He paid good.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
You know, we touched on earlier about some of the
paydays that you had and now you've got the LJN
figures coming out and later on the Hasburg figures. Are
you guys seeing a lot more money because of this?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I remember going Me and Bruce were upset that we
lost the titles and we heard that we weren't going
to get him back from the Bulldogs if they were
going to go a different direction. So we made an
appointment of events to go up and talk to him.
So we went up there to talk to Vince about
getting the belts back, and he goes, look at this boys,
(40:17):
and he handled this sorority check and I had one
for like one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in one check.
This is for that LGN doll you're talking about. And
Brutus same thing. And we forgot what we came here
to talk about. I mean, he knew how to set
you up. Right, I'm looking at this check. Well, we'd
(40:40):
like to know when we're going to get the belts
back while I'm going in a different direction with Bocof
and Chic and all these getting you know. So well,
we got that big check and I was tremendous. And
royalties have been a good part of my life now
every three months. You know, Vince set that up for
(41:02):
the guys. What the promoter would have done that? No,
So he can say what you want about Vincent man,
but the royalties are a big part of it. These
guys are making good money from that. He did that.
The LGN dolls and all this merchandise, DVD's and everything
(41:24):
is it's great all because of that. So you know,
say what you will. He's the genius, and we're all
still making money. You know.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
It's like Hollywood almost where you do a movie of
a few lines and you're still saying royalty checks.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Years later, exactly exactly. I didn't know what a royalty was,
and they had me sign this stuff and in the
dressing room, you know, sign sign sign a woman that
I had a friend in the office ww F house.
I can't remember her name, and I go, what is
exactly is this for? You know, I'm looking at the percentage.
(42:02):
I don't understand nothing. I had a lawyer looking at
me and go, oh, you should get more. And then
but she says no, She goes, it'll build up over
time and and when you retired you'll be getting money.
And she was right. You know, so they're more less,
you know, more or less. You know. I held out
(42:24):
a few few days about signing, but I what the heck?
So glad I signed it. It's been good, it's been good.
I had a great run in there, twenty year run,
and could be why I get good royalties. There's still
stuff that could put out, you know. I don't have
(42:46):
my own DVD out, but just got a new figure
put out that has just done Gangbusters for me, and
so it's all good. It's all good and A and
E thing coming out and you know, it's just I'm
(43:07):
just happy to be part of that. What do you
call it ww Universe In the words of Honky Tongue
man at WWE Universe. Yeah, they put I think it
was Terry Taylor.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Then you wrestled Matt Bourne and Ron Simmons, right, I
haven't rock Hills, South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yes, exactly. It was on television. It was a good match.
That's where they put us over for the belts. Yeah,
that was a good, good start. That's when Dusse Rhose
is still a booker. Is where Bill Wats came on,
came in and pissed me off.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
So, well, you promise anything.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yeah. I had a good contract and I did it
with Jimmy Crockett was part of that and Jim Ross,
he was part of the booking and jim Crockett and
Dusse Roose. They got a good deal to go in there,
and so I went and they put us with, put
me and Terry Taylor together. Of course I wanted more
(44:03):
out of it, but it worked out. It worked out.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
It was fun he also wrestled the Steiner brothers.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Right, Scott Steiner gave me a suplex or something, and
he hurt me right back, you know, right back. It
was backwards. It was on my neck, but at least
I know from all the years of wrestling to tuck
your neck. But he grabbed me and gave me one
(44:30):
of those Olympic fucking sup plexes backwards. If I had
to tuck my my neck, he could have killed me.
So I got pissed. I got I got fucking pissed,
and I told him I was pissed. And his brother
once he's name, I heard him. He says, what the
(44:51):
fuck you doing? Don't hurt the guys like that. He
saw that he hurt me, so he apologized to me
after the match. But I never let him go behind
me again. You know, you get beating a fuck that,
you know, I never I never trust him be getting
almost broke my neck. Fuck. You know, he's his brother's
(45:13):
really a nice guy. And I don't want to say
anything bad about Scott. He just you know, he gets
in there. He can't When you're a shooter, sometimes it's
hard you forget that you're in a match where I'm
selling for you. That's the only reason you're behind me,
or maybe you know, maybe I'm sure he could beat
(45:34):
me in a real Olympic style wrestling match, but I
still got this and I could punch him out. But
I gave him my back and he abused it. So
I never trusted him again. But thank god we didn't
have to wrestle him very many times. Yeah, I bitched
(45:55):
about that. Somebody I said, don't ever fucking I ain't
wrestling him again. But I think we did wrestle again.
But I never let him behind me. You're not getting
behind me, Scott. Sorry. I love his brother and I
liked Scott, but he's he's different, you know, forget the
shoot and ship man you know.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
A little bit later. But you're also the fabulous free Birds.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
I remember wrestling them in w c W. Yeah, and
they were they were easy. They were easy, but it
was you know, was it Buddy Roberts and uh was
it all three of them? Or I think it was Uh.
I think it was Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin. Yeah, yeah,
I wouldn't, It wouldn't the other guy passed. Two of
(46:41):
them passed away. Anythink free birds?
Speaker 1 (46:44):
But you had good experiences.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah they were they were fine. Yeah, they were fine.
I watched some of those matches too, they were good matches. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Did you enjoy your initial run when you came back to.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
W c W. I enjoyed it until Bill Watts got there.
I enjoyed. I lasted little over a year thing. I
hated Survivor Series. I just didn't like it. Four guys
against four guys, you know, or five guys against it.
I just didn't like it. My favorite matches are me
(47:19):
by myself against an opponent, or me and Bruce against whoever.
I don't like. I hate Battle Royals and I hate
Survivor Series. I was there for the moneymoon I was about.
I remember one time that Undertaker was my partner. When
he they brought him in and I think I had
(47:39):
the black hair, the rhythm of blues, and I saw
him standing. He comes out and everybody's looking at me.
He jumps. He didn't spring off the apron. He just
jumped in the air and landed on the apron. So
that's like a five foot jump there. He just jumped.
(48:00):
He didn't run and jump, just stood there and jumped.
And he walked the top rope Oh my god. He
you know, he walked out like a tightrope unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Do you remember that match well, because I mean it
was a very historic thing. Now, the debut of the.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Undertaker, I remember, yeah, I've seen it on YouTube to
keep playing it over. I remember it a little bit.
And I wrestled Undertaker one time and I lost, but
it was it was okay.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
But you guys had good chemistry together. Yeah, I'm still
a little younger at the time.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, he was. He was a good friendly guy.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
This is going into the nineteen nineties. Did you feel
like the gimmicks at the time were just getting a
little too cartoony?
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Oh yeah, serious, that's right, my alley. I was going
to bring that up, but yes, that's that's one reason
I left WW if I was you know, it was
ninety two or something. I was sick of all the
all the gimmicks and everything because I like wrestling, so
so one reason, you know, I asked Vince to let
me go and I went to w CW and I
(49:10):
started out real well there, but then Cowboy Bill Watts
came in as a booker and he wanted me to
do a job for sting on television. I go, I
don't do jobs unless there's something in there for me.
If I can beat him up next week or jump
him afterwards, or if there's something for me, I'm just
going to go out, be like a JABBRONI and put
this guy over. I didn't think he was that hot,
(49:32):
big deal anyway, and I still don't. I don't. I'm
not a Sting fan. Nice guy, but you know, nice guy.
You know I didn't want. I refuse to do the job,
and I walked out. It's one of the first times.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
No.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I walked out on Vince too, after he had the
Killer Bees beat the New dream Team. I walked out
on that one too. I mean, there's certain times you
know that I I just will fuck it. I'm going home.
You know I don't need this shit. I worked too
hard to make everything believable and to have the Killer
(50:10):
Bees beat the New dream Team didn't make sense to me.
And I don't like doing jobs unless I get something
for it. Hey, I said, so do I get the
jump Sting afterwards or no, he's gonna be goodbye. I
walked out.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
That was it, and they find me. They still owe
me five grand and I didn't realize I was losing
the five grand. But they never sent me. They never
sent me the check. But I did the job anyway
on TBS, on television, I didn't do the job. I
just walked out for Vince. At least I did what
(50:54):
he wanted. But then I got on the airplane and
flew home.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Do you think there were ever times where because you
came back a few times after this, after that, do
you think you were ever brought back and the intention
was maybe I've heard this from several guys where they
thought that they've been brought back and then punished in
a certain way.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's funny you should say that I came back. I
was working out and me and Hogan we're good friends.
And Hogan comes up just as after I had already
jumped the ship. I went to w CW for a while,
and then he comes up to me and he goes,
would you come back to WWF if I talked to
(51:34):
Vincent got you in there? And I go, yeah, So
I came back and I had kind of a babyface
turn and I went around and wrestled Dino Bravo over
the place they put me over good. It could have
been a better term for me. But it was getting
along all right and then but he was really just
setting me up for Earthquake at WrestleMania seven in LA
(51:59):
and they wanted me to go out and have Earthquake
beat me in four minutes. And you know, if it
would have done right, maybe jump me from maybe I
should have just done it. But I ended up wrestling
him for eight minutes. And I always thought it was
a horrible match because he was so much bigger than me.
I didn't like it. It was a bad position to
(52:20):
put me in, but I did the job. And then
I quit after that too, but at least I did it.
I did the job. Okay, goodbye.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
You just mentioned earlier too about how the Rumble matches
and the Battle Royals. You weren't a big fan of
the Survivor series, but you had a major, major showing
in one of the Royal rumbles in ninety one.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
I think it was Ronnie Garvin. Oh no, okay, yeah,
And I forgot about rugged Ronney Garvin because that was
a great angle too, But yes, I remember, I was
I think Martel wanted or Hogan or something, but I
was like, I broke the record for being in so
you did me a lot of good things, especially after
I complained.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
How is that match itself? Psychology wise? You guys planning
this in the back as far as are you in
there just kind of winging it because there's so many
people to kind of deal with.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
There's thirty there's no friggin psychology in that. But they
we had little things set up. How we're going to
get get out of the ring. Yeah, it's it's just
a routine type thing. It's hard to get psychology in that.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
He came back another time. You wrestled with Summer Slam
in ninety one, remember this with Mike Rotundo, But he
was irs.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I was a babyface there too, I remember. I remember
it a little bit. I know that I put him over.
I didn't like doing that, but I don't like doing jobs. Sorry.
At least I got a good payday. You know you're
gonna put me in Summer Slam. I know I'm going
to make a good money and and and it's not
(53:56):
always about winning all the time. It's how you lose.
You look like a piece of crap. You know, you
lose a dignity. You know.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
It's April nineteen seventy five and you're making your Madison
Square Garden debut. This is an event that was actually
on HBO as well, which was very new at the time.
You wrestled El Olympico. Do you remember how you felt
wrestling at the Garden for the first time.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
Well, I was in the Garden because of Los Angeles
TV was out there Spanish, the Spanish network, so they
played the Los Angeles Wrestling and I was the America's
champion out there, so they brought me in and I
wrestled this Olympical guy. But you can't have a mask
(54:45):
back then in New York, so they made him cuse
his face out like that. But you know, I watched
that match every once in a while, I got caught.
I was young there, but you know it was I
wasn't really ready for prime time yet. I was close,
you know, I was close. I've been wrestling four years
(55:05):
I think by then, and I just it just elevated.
Right after that. I went to Florida from LA and Oklahoma.
You know, you just I wasn't quite ready for prime time,
but it was a good match.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Was this the first experience you had meeting Vincent Van
or had you met him? I?
Speaker 2 (55:27):
No, his first experience meeting him, met the kid, you know,
so so it was a good Then I came back
again to Masison Square gardener Russell Victor Roberta, who was
out of a was a big star in La too
so and so it was. It was a good experience,
(55:50):
good experience being in New York and everything. It was
nineteen seventy five or six, something like that.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yeah, yeah, seems like just yesterday.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Huh you I bet I was twenty four, twenty five. Yeah,
right after I went back to Los Angeles. So I
finished up in Los Angeles, went to Oklahoma. I didn't
stay there long. Trips were long, and I had an
invitation to come to I met with Jack Briscoe, a
world champion at the time, and he goes, you want
to come to Florida. So he set me up with Florida.
(56:22):
Nineteen seventy four in Florida. I loved Florida. Oh, I
love Florida. All the girls in the bikinis, and there
was wrestling fans all over the place and they love
the wrestling was hot there and it was Gordon Solely.
You know, everybody knows about Gordon Solely. He had such
(56:42):
a good show. They had such good ratings, and you
had Miami, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, you had Tampa. Say, Pete,
what a great territory, what a great territory. After that,
I went into Charlotte and my dad had had to
play crash and he wasn't going to be able to
(57:04):
wrestle anymore. He's lucky to be alive. And they kept
calling me, and I was having such a good time
at Florida. They kept calling me, we want you to
come up here, and I'm thinking, Johnny Valentine, I got
to try to fill my dad's shoes. I just want
to stay in Florida, enjoy the sunshine and enjoy the girls.
(57:28):
I wasn't married at the time, And oh my god.
You know, it was just like it was good wrestling.
Eddie Graham would set you down before you went out
with the young guys and he'd say you do this
and that. He had so much psychology. He knew how
to run the territory. So he ran the territory. Dusty
Rhose is the big, bigger in life babyface there. He
(57:52):
drew tons of money. So it was just a great experience.
But George Scott kept calling me and Jim Crockett from
from from the Carolina. So I ended up going there
and sending in tapes so I'd be breaking boards of
my elbow and all that was good, and they sent
me up real good. I came in to Greensboro, which
(58:14):
is their big big show, wasn't Charlotte because Greensboro had
a a bigger building, and I jumped off the top
rope on Johnny Weaver, the legend there, and that got
me a lot of heat, put him out of wrestling,
and eventually they brought you know, I came in and
(58:34):
I lasted a long time in there, nineteen seventy six
and tagged me up with Rick Flair, and I was
on my way, and it was a great experience. And
you know what, nineteen seventy nine, I'd been there like
four years. Nineteen seventy nine, George Scott calls me and
he says, I'm gonna send you to New York. And
(58:57):
I go, I don't want to leave you, No, I'm
gonna send you in New York. They need talent up
there and very interested in you. So I went there
and and the rest is history. In New York was
awesome to me, massive score card and coming back in
in the main event with the figure four leg lock
(59:17):
Vincentman Seniors, the one that's told me and more or
less taught me teach me. Yeah, guys in the back,
teach me how to put the figure four on it.
I didn't know. I never used it, and he started.
He pushed me that way, and everybody that I wrestled,
they ended up in a figure four and they were
carried out on the stretchers. So he got me over
(59:41):
a big time. He knew how to do that. He
told me, everybody's going to know who I was, who
Greg Valentine was. After he says, after I put you
through the figure four things and breaking legs one after
the other, I was over. It was and and you
(01:00:02):
know the funniest thing. I've been there about a year,
and Vince comes up and says, here's your finishing date.
I've been there for a year, he says, but we're
going to send you back to Charlotte. So I went
back to Charlotte, went right back into Rick Flair again
and turned on Rick Flair and and then I had
the Roddy Piper thing in between. I came back to
(01:00:24):
New York again. So it's great she could go back
and forth. I came back and wrestled back then again,
and then I wrestled Pedro Morales. And don't forget the
Chief j strombo thing or it broke his leg. That
was phenomenal money. And he was such a great guy.
I loved the Chief. I loved all the guys I
(01:00:46):
worked against. Actually, and so eighty four I think I
finally finally left mid Atlantic and the book from mid
Atlantic Charlotte. George Scott was making a move to New York,
so it was all timing. So of course I was
(01:01:08):
one of his guys. He brought Steamboat in, he brought
a lot of different people, and the landscape of New
York was, you know, eventually, way back in the late
late seventies, you know, it was pulling here and and
(01:01:28):
and sticking fingers in the eye. It wasn't wrestling, and
the garden wasn't selling out. It was just stupid wrestling
they were doing. So they brought all these guys in
from the South in different places, and guys that could act,
you know, could wrestle, work, entertain and make it believable.
And Piper came in right after me. You know, it's
(01:01:53):
rest is history, just wrestle Mania one,
One of the big ones was Survivor series in eighty eight.
You were actually you and the Warrior, I think, like
the last two in the ring, so I know you
had worked with them several times in WWF.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I got along with them, and you know, I got
along with anybody, everybody, not just anybody. With everybody. I
made made a point even though I didn't like the
style or whatever. I always knew. My dad always told me,
you just got to work around it, and eventually, you know,
you're going to bring them to your style. Because I
(00:33):
was slow paced. I wasn't out there, and I didn't
set up a bunch of silly high spots, and it
was all with feeling and and I you know, I
know the Ultimate Warrior did the running back and forth
things a lot of times when I worked with him.
You know, I hook up and go for a hold
and wrestle. He's out there running, so I just he
(00:55):
wants to do this. I hate it when they do
criss crosses, by the way, but he would just keep wrong.
I just stopped this. I'm not gonna do this crap,
and I'd stop and I just watch him run back
and forth. I said, well, one thing good about he's
going to get tired, and then I could grab a
hold on him because he's gonna run. He's going to
(01:16):
run out of gas, and I don't care how strong
you are and how pumped up you are and all
that stuff he did. He was blown out before he
even hooked up. But I had a good match with
him on Saturday Night's main event. I remember that one.
We did a thing where I had the shin guard
and and I think Jimmy Hart maybe I didn't have
(01:40):
the shin guard yet, but I know we did something
where it was it was messed up, and he threw
Jimmy Hart on top of me and he got one,
two three, But it was like a messed up finish,
but it didn't hurt me and it was good for him.
So I remember that was probably the biggest stage I have,
But I mean mentioned something about Survivor series didn't work
(02:03):
with the guy too much. But it reminds me of
a story I went to. This is after I left WWE.
I think it was in ninety four, and I went
over for this promotion called World superstar Red WSW something
like that. A guy out in New Jersey and he
(02:27):
booked Jake the Snake. We were all released from ww
or quit or whatever. Say had Jake the Snake. He
had Hercules, and he had myself, and he had the
Ultimate Warrior. And then he had an undercard with a
lot of people I think the Bushwarkers are there, and
a lot of guys that had name value. And so
(02:49):
I remember the Ultimate Warrior. He says. I wasn't wrestling
Outimate Warrior, but I was part of the main event.
I was working with Jake Jake. So he says, Greg,
He goes, you want more money, and I go, more money.
What's up? He goes, well, I want more money, and
(03:09):
it will help because you're in the other main event.
It'll help if we tell this guy we want more
money or we're not going on. And I've never done
this in my life before, never held it up, held
money up. But I know it's been done. But I
didn't have to. I was in WWE, where it was
(03:30):
all trust. But we're in Vienna, this thing is sold out,
and we've been on the road for two weeks and
we're tired. And he goes, I could get you more
money if you stick by me, and I said, sure,
let's go for it. And the guy comes in the
promoter and he says, I can't get this is Vienna, Austria.
(03:54):
I can't get American money over here? What are you
talking about? But it wasn't long before I'd say, I'd
say ten to fifteen minutes later, he come in with
all these halliburtons. Everybody used to have Halli Burtons back
in the day, and they were full of one hundred
dollars bills of money. And I'm not going to say
(04:15):
how much more I got, but it was a significant amount.
And so I never knew Warrior that well before that.
But then, you know, I said, man, you're a hell
of a guy. Thank you. You know, I mean, I
at least doubled or triple my money. And we went
out and wrestled, and you know, I went out and
(04:38):
wrestled Jake and ever since then, I you know, his
fond memories, the Ultimate Warrior, and so sad that he
got put in the Hall of Fame and died a
couple of days later. I was just tragic. But I
had a lot of time for Warrior. He was different,
you know, a smart guy and good memories.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Did you have a chance to talk to him before
his final appearance there.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I saw him at some comic cons and he looked
a lot different. He cut his hair and everything, but all,
you know, just a handshake. How you're doing? My wife
knew his wife and just sad, you know. I saw
him at a few comic cons, but you don't really
(05:26):
have a chance to visit, and he was he was
in a private area, so I had to go seek
him out to shake his hand. But at the WrestleMania
I can't remember which one it was. Yeah, I was
the one in New Orleans, but I'm not sure the number.
(05:46):
I went backstage and saw him there, and then a
couple of days later he's gone, you know, tragic, so
full of life.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, this time in WCW, Goldberg was a big draw there.
How did you see that? What did you think of
that character? His run?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I was there at the time he came out.
He was watching me in Orlando one of the TV tapings,
and he came up to me and he says, really
honored to meet you, Gregg. I'm a big fan. And
I didn't know what kind of push he was going
to get, but I remember, you know, thank you, And
then the push was Kevin Sullivan's idea. And I think
(06:31):
he beat guys in two or three minutes for six
months in a row, right, bam man. He give him
the whatever the hole was and that really got him over.
I mean that's how to get somebody over and get that.
Kevin was Kevin Salivan was a booker, and he got
his ass over. You know, he ended up hurting Brett
(06:53):
Harden a couple of people. But Goldberg is still over
now because of that. People don't forget that. You know
Eddie and he's a good athlete. He's a tough, double tough.
He used to be played with Atlanta Falcons. He's a
tough son of a gun. And he knows how to talk,
and he looks the part. And and Goldberg's a big deal.
(07:17):
He's only fifty or something now, so you know, you
get closer to sixty, it's hard to get in the ring.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
This is kind of random, But do you remy wrestling
on this Heroes of Wrestling pay per view?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh my god? In out of Louisiana a casino.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right casino magic in Saint Louis?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah? Do you remember what? Do you remember
about what in St? Louis, East Saint Louis yes, East
Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Okay, and you wrestled with George Steele. Sherry Martell was
involved in this. She was the manager, I believe.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, she came out and gave me a big wet kiss.
That shocked me. But yeah, it was just a goofy match.
How are you going to wrestle George Steele? You know?
It was a goofy match. I just I was there
for the pay day. I don't know how did it end.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I remember Jake the Snake was supposed to do something,
but I think he was a little inebriated. And then
they kind of called an audible and Yoko Zuna was
somehow involved. Jim Knighthart, Jake may have whipped it out
or something.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh that's when he exposed himself. Jake was drunk. He
was really fucked up. While he was he was high
like five different directions, so he was inebriated. Is that
the word you used? Yeah? And uh, And I don't
remember what I did. It's it didn't matter what I
did with George Steele because I was goofy frigging match. Anyway,
(08:39):
I'm just glad to get the payday. But I heard
about it and they had to switch the main event up,
and everybody was really pissed, but Jake already had his money.
This is sub JABRONI fucking promoter. I wanted to do
a big Hey, I'm there for the payday. I'm always
(09:02):
gonna work the best I can. But how are you
gonna work with George Steele? He's eating turnbuckles? So I'm
just glad. The only thing I remember is Sherry gave
me a real sloppy kiss. God rest her too. And
George Steele. I love George Steele as a person. I
didn't like his wrestling, but he was over you know.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So you wrestled Haystacks up the Spectrum in Philadelphia back
and I think seventy nine.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I'd love to find that match if I could try
it down.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I can't even remember that one. You can't really wrestle
these guys, so it's really up to them what they
want to do. What do you want to do, Haysach.
Do you want to walk around and step on me
or pick me up and slam me? It's basically it's
gonna be a one sided match. What am I gonna
do with him? You know? And I don't want to
(09:58):
knock him out, to speak, because you might not be
able to get back up. He was not in good shape.
But I don't remember that match, so it's hard to
I'm just saying what I would do in a situation
that I would just wrestling very carefully. You can't pull
him out, and you can't. I never like to throw
(10:19):
people to the roads anyway, because that's so you know,
you don't do that in a real fight. So it
had to be a short match.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
You keep everything in the middle of the ring because
you said about the crisscross earlier and how it doesn't
really make sense in a fight. You're not going to
criss cross the ring.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I tried to. Everything is logical to me, and when
when I'm out there, you know, aside from whether they
think wrestling's fixed or not, my part up to the
ending is real, and I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna
talk to my opponent. I'm gonna tell him what I
want to do if he's lost. But it's most of
(10:58):
the guys that I work. But back in that day,
you know they had ring time too, so you don't
need to if you want to call something in there,
you know you can call it, but I didn't. You know,
I didn't like take I hated backdrops. That's a US unlogical.
We throw some guy and give him back. It's just
not wrestling. Body slams is wrestling. Soup lex's wrestling, grabbing arms,
(11:23):
taking people down, all that kind of stuff. That's wrestling,
and that's real. I always wanted to make it look real,
and ninety percent of my shit was real. So the punches,
the chops, I got it. I get on it. Got
into doing a lot of chops because I learned it
(11:43):
from walm Canio beat me to death all the time.
So I ended up learning how to throw the chops
with Rick Flair and all that in the Middle Atlantic area.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Just a few minutes ago, you talked about with Dick
Murdock and Dusty Rhodes. You know, you worked with them
as an opponent and attack partner. How big was Dusty
Rhodes back in the day For fans that don't know.
Till seventy four, I went in. Jack Briscoe actually got
me booked in Florida because he saw me up in Buffalo,
and I was pretty depressed being up there in Buffalo
(12:16):
all the time, and I had a partnership with John
Donnie Fargo, but that was going away, so they brought
me in and my dad actually let me start using
my real name and Greg Valentine. But I wrestled as
his brother, because back in that day, my dad was
(12:37):
in his late forties. He want everybody know how he was.
So I understood that. So I went in there as
his brother. But I went in there with Dusty Rhodes.
I guess he was the booker. Eddie Graham, of course
ran everything, and he was a booker too, a promoter.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Dusty was just Dusty was. He was the American dream.
I mean he he had great interviews, He had so
much charisma. He was. He was what was drawing the
money in Florida. I mean he had a good gang,
a lot a good crew. Shouldn't say gang, but a
good crew of guys. And I was just happy to
(13:21):
be there. And Eddie Graham would actually come and talk
to us before it went out and wrestled, and you know,
he always pieced in different things. You know, put this
in your match, put this in your magic. He was
so articulate and it was a good I learned so
(13:42):
much from Eddie Graham those years nineteen seventy four, we're
going to seventy five, and went to la and then
seventy six I came back to Florida again.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Now that you mention Eddie Graham, could you tell some
of the fans about what kind of innovatory was and
how it was working with him.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, So I didn't work against him, but I worked
for him, and it was great because he really was
interested in the young guys, and he'd show you a
little He wouldn't actually say he had to do all
this stuff in your match, but he would show little
things segments of your match, and you could throw in there.
And the grand brothers, I said, where they started, Eddie
(14:25):
and Jerry. Jerry was a crazy one, Eddie. The Grand
brothers were big time in New York and big time,
big time in New York Tag teams, World Tag Team
Champions in the old w w WF. And so he
(14:46):
went to Florida and became the booker and then actually
bought into the territory there, so he was well seated there.
And then of course he Florida. We had Miami, and
we had we had a lot, We had Fort Myers,
we had Orlando, Tallahassee, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Tampa, Tampa
(15:14):
Army and we wrestled in Saint Pete two in the
big building near Bayfront Center, and it was a great place,
a great place to be. I mean, we worked probably
every night since Sunday. But you know, it was all
mainly short trips. Sometimes we'd rent we'd rent Old Blue.
(15:37):
It was a DC three airplane. We'd fly to Miami
because Miami was a long, long trip and we usually
did TV on Wednesdays, so by the time he got
out of the interviews, you'd have to jump in the
car and drive and barely make it. So a lot
of us would just pile in this this we called
it Old Blue, and we'd d C three or something
(16:00):
like that, and we'd fly down there. A couple of
scary moments on that, you know, the back door flew
open one time, but we all flew down there and
did the Miami thing, went back and flew back to Tampa.
A lot better than driving because that's three hundred and
fifty miles and that was before Alligator Alley was even completed.
(16:23):
It was just a little two lane road, so it
was a rough a rough track. In the cars back
in that day.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And you didn't have all the interstates and highways were
built up, and you have mapped Alligator Alley.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
You could go down to say Sarasota and Sarah, Fort
Mars and Naples right and then you'd cut left and
it was Now it's a big, huge freeway called Alligator Alley,
But back in that day, in the seventies, it was
a two lane road and it was Alligatory Alley, and
(16:59):
you had alligator crawling out a lot of times. That's
where I saw my first alligator other than the zoo,
and so we usually just flew. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
We worked with Andrea the Giant a lot from the
mid seventies and on. And did you meet him in Japan?
Where did you meet Andrea?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yes, I met him in Japan. And this is when
I was still in LA working for Olympic Wrestling out there,
and Los Angeles got on the airplane they booked me
in Japan. It was for six weeks. Well, but I
met Andrea. It was a big seven forty seven. It
was empty and I was in the back and the
(17:43):
stewardess came back said, there's a couple of gentlemen on
the first class in the upper deck because there's an
old seven forty seven had two decks in the front.
They want you to come up there and see them.
So I went up there and it was Arnold, Arnold
Skoln and Andre the Giant, and then I had a
great time. They were playing cribbage and I was drinking Kognac,
(18:05):
and I don't even remember going through customs. I was
plastered on cogniac. They practically had to carry me out
at the airplane. But I had a great time. Andre
was there for three weeks, so I got to hang
out with him scolling. He went back sooner, but me
and Andre would hit the Koreean barbecues together and we
(18:26):
had a great time and a funny story. One time
we couldn't get a taxi because he was so big,
and so I told him to hot around the corner.
I waved the fat taxi down and then the guy
sees and Andre sneaks around. The guy sees Andre coming out,
and he gets back in his cab and starts to
take off, and Andre grabs a bumper and list it
(18:48):
and the wheels are spinning like that. It was like
something out of Avinger movie or something. Wow. And the
guy got out of the cab and took off running.
The cab driver took out a bus to get us back,
or a big panel truck or something like that.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Holy shit, I mean you, uh, and you didn't just
hang out with him on that tour. Also, you were
tag team partners of them on several occasions.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, and uh, I got you know, being he was
working for New York and so was I, and Vince
took over his bookings from Frank Vauwa, the Canadian guy
that had his contract. So Vince took up took over
all of his stuff, and he still won other places
like Ndwian stuff. But I remember this for really, like
(19:39):
when me and Flair were world champions in the early
eighties in in the mid Atlantic and the Carolinas, they
would have Wahoo McDaniel and Andre the Giant go against
Flair myself, So Flair would always have to go on
there and to get the Giant slammed because he took
(20:00):
bumps all the time. So they wanted me to come
in and do the same thing, and I tried, but
it threw my saccarelliac out all the fucking time. I
couldn't walk, And uh, but we made it through. There
was a lot of matches against Andre and whoever it
was either Wall who I mean, you know Wahoo is
(20:21):
bad enough to wrestle.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And you have Andre too, and you didn't just wrestle
them in tag you had solo matches with him too.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah. Yeah, I only wrestled him one time by myself
and tag team a lot of times and in Battle Royals,
but only one time it was me against him, single match,
and it was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at a college there.
We always had a good crowd there too. It's a
(20:50):
nice building. And I saw I was wrestling Andre the Giant.
I go, you're kidding me. And he's back there drinking
bottles of wine and Arnold Skola and they're playing cribbage
again and he's drinking beaujulet. I had many other bows.
You ate about six or a six pack of big wines.
(21:11):
And then he gets into the ring and I go
to the ring first, and so he gets into the
ring and he's like, he gets in the ring and
he kind of sits on the second rope there in
the corner, and he go, what's wrong with you? Boss?
And I go, nothing, boss. So I went to hook
(21:31):
him for him, and he grabbed me and he kind
of rolled me around and he sat on top of
me in the corner. You know, he's like, imagine yourself
going out there and you go, here's this big cow.
But he's up on all he's up on his second,
his second, his back legs, and he's just you know,
(21:53):
instead of all four as he stands on their way.
So how are you gonna wrestle that? That's what Andre
giant was. So he just grabbed moved me, set me down,
and sat on me in the corner and let a
big giant fart and all the people love it was
probably that got It wasn't running fart, but it was
one of those wine farts, you know, m smells like
(22:15):
Merlot or could be Bouzu lay. So he I says,
just beat me, please take it. But he he messed
around with me for a while and he beat me.
Great experience. But you know he got me back because
in the Battle Royals, I used to sneak up behind him.
(22:38):
There's like twenty twenty guy about twenty men Battle Royals,
and I'd sneak up behind him and I'd hit him
real hard on his back and he turned around, so
he got me back.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Mentioned those Battle Royals. There was one that you were
with with Andre the Giant in Houston. I wanted to
ask you about. And I don't know if you remember
this because you've had so many, but there was one
of the San Houston Coliseum. It was you Gino Hernandez
the Spoiler, Andre the Giant and Bruiser Brody was the
winner in this one.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And I think you have at least one match with
Bruis of Brody that I can find, where you and
you were with Harley Race wrestled Bruis of Brody and
David von Eric. Do you have any memories that you
could share about Bruis of Brody inside the ring and outside.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know something? You know? You said that and then
a couple of people said that I did wrestle. I
didn't realize I wrestled him. Now. It must have been
before the Puerto Rical thing or something. Nice guy, a
tough guy. But I don't, you know, I just don't remember.
I don't remember the experience really, you know, I really don't.
(23:46):
I remember most everything. I don't remember that.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's hard to have thousands of matches and really narrow down.
I guess one two.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I don't remember that one made me knock me out,
standing up as he was a tough guy.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
But you guys to get along outside the ring, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I got along with you know, I got along with everybody,
and you and you want to stay. I had people
that were you know, I would get pissed off in
a ring sometimes and people knew that. So but it
wasn't like I was a loaded gun, you know. I
got along with everybody.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I want to mention this that people might not know
that you were not only were you on the very
first starcade, but you were on the first seven WrestleManias
as well. Can you talk about just leading up to
WrestleMania one.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I've been wrestling Tito NonStop and and we were doing
good business all over the country, and I had Tito's
icy belt, and so he's still chasing me for the belt,
and they were thinking, well, if they put Tito against
me at the first WrestleMania there, they're gonna hurt Tito
(24:57):
if Tito don't win the belt back. But they didn't
want I want to switch the belt yet because we were
doing such good business and I was doing good business
with a belt, so they put jack Yard Dog in there.
He was a great performer and everything, but he he
wasn't the a wrestler wrestler like I was or Tito.
(25:17):
You know, holds and all this. It was kind of
a lot of the gimmick stuff. But he was over
and you know, you get down on his legs and
gets like a dog and get down on his knees
and charge you with the head butt. But I went
for it and it worked out. It worked out. It
was It was a great match. It wasn't one of
my best ones, but it was. It was good enough
(25:39):
and jy D God bless him. I think that's about
the only time I ever wrestled him, was just a
wrestl Ania one. And then Tito ran in and stewed
me off. But I beat him with a foot on
the rope. I'm just glad I made it through because ja,
why d's a gimmick guy. I liked to wrestle, grab
(26:00):
grab a If I grab a hold on he'll look
at me like, what are you doing now? Is this wrestling?
Are you grabbing a hold on me? You know, it
was just like, you know, it's a different thing. So
but I they when I wrestled somebody like that, that's
a gimmick, but a tough guy for real, But I
mean a gimmick and he was over. You just have
(26:21):
to learn how to work around it and and work
around it and ended up being a good match. The
big main event there that night was I believe it
was Hogan and orned Off against Piper and Orton. I
think that was it. Okay, something like that, Yeah, and
(26:44):
that was just a big deal. That was That's when
wrestling really became. Uh. They had the connection with the
rock and roll and they had the connection with Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So do you remember anything about that night the first WrestleMania.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I remember. I remember meeting Billy Martin because I'm a
big wrest uh uh baseball fan. I'm a big baseball fan,
and I met him. I never got to meet Muhammad
al league Is. I loved Muhammed Ali and the rope
and dope and I used to wrestle kind of liked that.
(27:20):
I mean, emulet coin of emulated his rope of dope
with my wrestling when I'm boxing a little bit. So
he's my idol. But I didn't get to see him.
But I met Billy Martin and I didn't meet Liberaci,
but I met Cindy Laupler still know her very well
from there. Yeah, so that was a great experience.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
WrestleMania one fantastic And it wasn't long after this started
the Dream Team. Were there talks at you know, during
this WrestleMania or did this just kind of pop up
afterwards when you went to the tag with Brutus.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Well, before I lost the Icy Belt, I was wrestling
in tag matches with Brutus, So they they had an idea.
George Scott was a booker once again in Vans and
they and Pat was in there, two pep patters. They
ended up, let's put these guys. See how these guys
worked together, and it worked out really good. So when
(28:14):
we had our match with Winham and Rotunda when we
beat him for the belts, we'd already had quite a
few matches together, so it worked out real well. We
had a good chemistry.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
You went back to WCW and you had a lot
of big Monday nightro matches in the nineties. I think
the first one back he had was with Randy Savage,
a guy that you wrestled and at the Wrestling Four
where he wanted to become a champion.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It was good there and I put him over, but
it was it was it was a good way that
I did it, and he sold for me. No, I
had had a good relationship with Randy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Were you close with the Pafo family at all?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yes? Yes, yes, I in fact, they came over to
my house. Knew Lannie, and I knew uh I forget
the father's name, Angelo Po. I knew their mother. Yeah,
we socialize those people. Those are good people.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Do you have any memories of that match that you
had with him at WrestleMania? For you wrestled twice that night.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I wrestled Steamboat and went over Steamboat and that was
That was great. Steamboat did the job for me. That
was awesome. So I went back with Savage. I remember,
you know, it turned out good. He likes to grab
guys back in the dress room before you go out
and plan the whole frigging match. I just stayed the
(29:43):
fuck away from him because I don't do that. Nothing
against Randy. I knew that they wanted me to put
him over, and I did that, but I didn't. I
don't plan. I don't like to plan my matches. He
wanted to start a certain mat. I said, okay, that's good,
start like that, but after that, let me call it
(30:03):
and then then you can get your duke raised.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
So you were able to lead as you're.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Supposed to do that. Yeah, that's the way it is.
But I don't like planning out ship. I don't like
doing that. Like when the British Bulldog said, we were
they they used to like to do that ship and
they get beefcake over in the corner and they'd be
going over the whole match and then they I said, no,
(30:30):
you know, no, I don't talk about my match. You know,
I don't do that. You know, it's all ad live
out there. Talk to the guy, you know, that's that's
the way you do it. Talk to you know, you
do a little shop talk. But I don't like planning
out and you know what, I always tell them that
I can't remember it, and so that way I can't
(30:52):
remember that eye spot. I can't. I hate high spots,
by the way.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
And you can also listen to face ends and actually
judge the match and what they're here.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You know, it's gotta be a live because people could
tell if it's contrived and preconceived you know.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Isn't it like a comedy show where you have a
comedian that goes out. He's trying to do the same
set in front of different audiences, but it doesn't always play.
Sometimes you have to switch it up.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
On the fly. You got you gotta you know. That's
why I don't have a plan. I go out there.
I feel it. I know how the thing's gonna end
up if I have a real heated uh angle with somebody,
like like with Tito where I broke his leg and
now he's one of the first matches that I come back.
(31:40):
You know, I'm gonna let Tito run after me, and
I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna let him. You gotta
put his ship over first because he's gonna be mad.
It's all psychological. Didn't you take over?
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Did you enjoy this this run here in w CW
when you went back? And will you promise anything during.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The second time? Yes? Actually, Hogan got helped get me
in the end too, And it was Eric Bischoff as
a booker. I got a good contract, a good deal
and no promises. They put me over on w c
W Surday night, and I would I would like I
(32:18):
put Lugo over one time in matra Man, but it
was my finishes and uh so you know, you can
lose gracefully. So I did that. That was on the
big stage, and I would come back on Saturday nights,
Saturday Night's w CW Saturday Night whatever it's called, and
(32:40):
uh and they would I would win matches there. So
so it kept me borderline. But they eventually eventually let
me go because I was I was not being used
that much. It's I'd sit around a lot. So I
end us, you know, start doing independence because I didn't
want to stay home all the time. Make money every weekend,
(33:01):
I'm sitting home. So I did that, but the eventually
let me go. I don't know why. I just said, okay,
they sent me a letter. You you you won't be
working for us in two weeks an hour or something.
Hey fine, you know, but it was it was good
exposure and I had had a good time at that
short time.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
There, and I was able to probably help out the
independence and.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I went right back to the independence and independence really
we're taking off again. And then I went back to
Japan and went back to Europe. So it was all good.
And then you know, then It eventually ended up being
autograph sessions all over the place, comic cons that that
came in, So there was all kinds of stuff to do, a.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Lot of money on that circuit too. Yeah, you also
wrestled the Giant early on in his career. Yes, do
you remember anything about about this match?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
I remember it was outdoors. Was that in Disney Disneyland
or Disney World? And it was outdoors? And I went
up on the top rope to give him an elbow,
and he goes, how about if we do this? So
he grabbed me by the throat on the top rope
and gave me that big giant slam. So that's how
(34:22):
I went out. That was a good way to go out,
at least I've watched reruns of that. That was a
good way to do the job. A big friggin guy.
How am I going to beat him anyway? You know?
A nice guy. I loved Paul to death.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I don't know if you heard about the news, but
since nineteen ninety nine he is with WWI and has
it this week he's now been signed to ADW.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
No, I didn't hear that. Yeah, that's good for AW.
I liked those people. They brought me in just to
set in a dog collar match and paid me well.
And I liked it. I liked it very much. Back
then we got paid cash every night. We didn't have
to wait for a corporate check. Money, money in the
(35:06):
hand every night for WWF. He said, it's cash only.
What kind of paydays are we talking about like in
the seventies you? Oh wow, Well, I remember, we're still
getting cash now. I did that. I did the thing
where I broke Tito's leg right, and he had a
(35:27):
legitimate bad leg injury, had to have a operation, so
they put me in on him and used the figure
for his leg was already messed up, and I messed
it up even more. But when we actually got out
on the road and started wrestling, he's fighting me for
the title. I remember. We went to Detroit in the afternoon,
(35:54):
sold it out. Joe Louis Arena or Cobo one of
those two got forty five hundred dollars cash. Boom boom,
boom boom. Got on a private airplane, flew to Boston wrest.
I got the Boston Garden, the Old Garden, same thing
sold out. I think it was another four ground close
(36:17):
to it. Whatever, So you get gods of money on you.
They went two other shows later on Philadelphia Baltimore. You know,
you can make twenty grand a weekend, thirty ground a weekend.
This is before the checks. The only one, the only
one that you would get paid, but a corporate check
(36:37):
was massive Square Garden. You didn't get cash there. You
could get an advance, but that was it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
And there is a lot of money for twenty twenty one.
I mean, I can't imagine what it was in the
seventies and eighties when you're getting these kind of checks.
Who four thousand dollars a twenty thousand, thirty thousand for
a weekend.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
That's that's crazy, It's fabulous. Yeah, this is in the eighties.
This is this money. I have this money. Of course
back in mid Atlantic, we always got a check every week,
but I loved that cash every night. Wow, that's bat there.
Who doesn't love cash, right? I mean Las Vegas the
(37:15):
home with cash? We like cash here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
We had a fan actually asked, because you did the
first Star KD, you did the first wrestle man, they
wanted to know what the paydays were between the two.
Were they comparable or do you remember? I know it's
a long time ago, but.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Uh, I don't remember what I made for Starkad. I
mean it was good, but I remember russell Mania one
was real good, so you know, but it was a check.
It's twenty five grand or something like that. It was good,
and I wouldn't I was Intercontinental Championship match with the
(37:55):
Dog and you had the tag team match win them
in a tunnel I think against Chikh and Bowcup, and
then you had another tag match at the top was
hul Cogan and mister T and Piper and Orno. So
I was so I was third in the top. It
(38:16):
was a good, good payday.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Are they still doing the payouts based on how you're
drawing on the card at this point? This is before
where everyone's kind of getting like before contracts and all
that other stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, so I never had a contract all these years.
You know, I don't know what percentage they were paying
out of the gate, but if you were in the
main event, you would get more than a semi main
event or the special match, and the lower guys you know,
would get a good payday, but it wouldn't be like
we were getting. So they yeah, so they know they
(38:49):
figured the main a bit is a draw, that's the
main draw, and then and then the match is stacked underneath.
They would help, you know, it's called supporting card and
you would get a good hunkt of money too. You know.
Hawk Cogan had his own deal, so I don't know
what he made, yeah, but most of the other guys were,
(39:10):
you know, five percent of the house or whatever it
turned out being. And the Carolinas, you know it was
it was a check. I think it might have been
a check every two weeks. You know, it was a while,
but it was always good, good money there. Jim Crockett
paid and I know he just passed away. He was
(39:32):
a good friend of mine, Jim Crockett Jr. But he
paid good. He paid good.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
You know, we touched on earlier about some of the
paydays that you had and now you've got the LJN
figures coming out and later on the Hasburg figures. Are
you guys seeing a lot more money because of this?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I remember going Me and Bruce were upset that we
lost the titles and we heard that we weren't going
to get him back from the Bulldogs if they were
going to go a different direction. So we made an
appointment of events to go up and talk to him.
So we went up there to talk to Vince about
getting the belts back, and he goes, look at this boys,
(40:17):
and he handled this sorority check and I had one
for like one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in one check.
This is for that LGN doll you're talking about. And
Brutus same thing. And we forgot what we came here
to talk about. I mean, he knew how to set
you up. Right, I'm looking at this check. Well, we'd
(40:40):
like to know when we're going to get the belts
back while I'm going in a different direction with Bocof
and Chic and all these getting you know. So well,
we got that big check and I was tremendous. And
royalties have been a good part of my life now
every three months. You know, Vince set that up for
(41:02):
the guys. What the promoter would have done that? No,
So he can say what you want about Vincent man,
but the royalties are a big part of it. These
guys are making good money from that. He did that.
The LGN dolls and all this merchandise, DVD's and everything
(41:24):
is it's great all because of that. So you know,
say what you will. He's the genius, and we're all
still making money. You know.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
It's like Hollywood almost where you do a movie of
a few lines and you're still saying royalty checks.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Years later, exactly exactly. I didn't know what a royalty was,
and they had me sign this stuff and in the
dressing room, you know, sign sign sign a woman that
I had a friend in the office ww F house.
I can't remember her name, and I go, what is
exactly is this for? You know, I'm looking at the percentage.
(42:02):
I don't understand nothing. I had a lawyer looking at
me and go, oh, you should get more. And then
but she says no, She goes, it'll build up over
time and and when you retired you'll be getting money.
And she was right. You know, so they're more less,
you know, more or less. You know. I held out
(42:24):
a few few days about signing, but I what the heck?
So glad I signed it. It's been good, it's been good.
I had a great run in there, twenty year run,
and could be why I get good royalties. There's still
stuff that could put out, you know. I don't have
(42:46):
my own DVD out, but just got a new figure
put out that has just done Gangbusters for me, and
so it's all good. It's all good and A and
E thing coming out and you know, it's just I'm
(43:07):
just happy to be part of that. What do you
call it ww Universe In the words of Honky Tongue
man at WWE Universe. Yeah, they put I think it
was Terry Taylor.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Then you wrestled Matt Bourne and Ron Simmons, right, I
haven't rock Hills, South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yes, exactly. It was on television. It was a good match.
That's where they put us over for the belts. Yeah,
that was a good, good start. That's when Dusse Rhose
is still a booker. Is where Bill Wats came on,
came in and pissed me off.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
So, well, you promise anything.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yeah. I had a good contract and I did it
with Jimmy Crockett was part of that and Jim Ross,
he was part of the booking and jim Crockett and
Dusse Roose. They got a good deal to go in there,
and so I went and they put us with, put
me and Terry Taylor together. Of course I wanted more
(44:03):
out of it, but it worked out. It worked out.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
It was fun he also wrestled the Steiner brothers.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Right, Scott Steiner gave me a suplex or something, and
he hurt me right back, you know, right back. It
was backwards. It was on my neck, but at least
I know from all the years of wrestling to tuck
your neck. But he grabbed me and gave me one
(44:30):
of those Olympic fucking sup plexes backwards. If I had
to tuck my my neck, he could have killed me.
So I got pissed. I got I got fucking pissed,
and I told him I was pissed. And his brother
once he's name, I heard him. He says, what the
(44:51):
fuck you doing? Don't hurt the guys like that. He
saw that he hurt me, so he apologized to me
after the match. But I never let him go behind
me again. You know, you get beating a fuck that,
you know, I never I never trust him be getting
almost broke my neck. Fuck. You know, he's his brother's
(45:13):
really a nice guy. And I don't want to say
anything bad about Scott. He just you know, he gets
in there. He can't When you're a shooter, sometimes it's
hard you forget that you're in a match where I'm
selling for you. That's the only reason you're behind me,
or maybe you know, maybe I'm sure he could beat
(45:34):
me in a real Olympic style wrestling match, but I
still got this and I could punch him out. But
I gave him my back and he abused it. So
I never trusted him again. But thank god we didn't
have to wrestle him very many times. Yeah, I bitched
(45:55):
about that. Somebody I said, don't ever fucking I ain't
wrestling him again. But I think we did wrestle again.
But I never let him behind me. You're not getting
behind me, Scott. Sorry. I love his brother and I
liked Scott, but he's he's different, you know, forget the
shoot and ship man you know.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
A little bit later. But you're also the fabulous free Birds.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
I remember wrestling them in w c W. Yeah, and
they were they were easy. They were easy, but it
was you know, was it Buddy Roberts and uh was
it all three of them? Or I think it was Uh.
I think it was Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin. Yeah, yeah,
I wouldn't, It wouldn't the other guy passed. Two of
(46:41):
them passed away. Anythink free birds?
Speaker 1 (46:44):
But you had good experiences.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah they were they were fine. Yeah, they were fine.
I watched some of those matches too, they were good matches. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Did you enjoy your initial run when you came back to.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
W c W. I enjoyed it until Bill Watts got there.
I enjoyed. I lasted little over a year thing. I
hated Survivor Series. I just didn't like it. Four guys
against four guys, you know, or five guys against it.
I just didn't like it. My favorite matches are me
(47:19):
by myself against an opponent, or me and Bruce against whoever.
I don't like. I hate Battle Royals and I hate
Survivor Series. I was there for the moneymoon I was about.
I remember one time that Undertaker was my partner. When
he they brought him in and I think I had
(47:39):
the black hair, the rhythm of blues, and I saw
him standing. He comes out and everybody's looking at me.
He jumps. He didn't spring off the apron. He just
jumped in the air and landed on the apron. So
that's like a five foot jump there. He just jumped.
(48:00):
He didn't run and jump, just stood there and jumped.
And he walked the top rope Oh my god. He
you know, he walked out like a tightrope unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Do you remember that match well, because I mean it
was a very historic thing. Now, the debut of the.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Undertaker, I remember, yeah, I've seen it on YouTube to
keep playing it over. I remember it a little bit.
And I wrestled Undertaker one time and I lost, but
it was it was okay.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
But you guys had good chemistry together. Yeah, I'm still
a little younger at the time.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, he was. He was a good friendly guy.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
This is going into the nineteen nineties. Did you feel
like the gimmicks at the time were just getting a
little too cartoony?
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Oh yeah, serious, that's right, my alley. I was going
to bring that up, but yes, that's that's one reason
I left WW if I was you know, it was
ninety two or something. I was sick of all the
all the gimmicks and everything because I like wrestling, so
so one reason, you know, I asked Vince to let
me go and I went to w CW and I
(49:10):
started out real well there, but then Cowboy Bill Watts
came in as a booker and he wanted me to
do a job for sting on television. I go, I
don't do jobs unless there's something in there for me.
If I can beat him up next week or jump
him afterwards, or if there's something for me, I'm just
going to go out, be like a JABBRONI and put
this guy over. I didn't think he was that hot,
(49:32):
big deal anyway, and I still don't. I don't. I'm
not a Sting fan. Nice guy, but you know, nice guy.
You know I didn't want. I refuse to do the job,
and I walked out. It's one of the first times.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
No.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I walked out on Vince too, after he had the
Killer Bees beat the New dream Team. I walked out
on that one too. I mean, there's certain times you
know that I I just will fuck it. I'm going home.
You know I don't need this shit. I worked too
hard to make everything believable and to have the Killer
(50:10):
Bees beat the New dream Team didn't make sense to me.
And I don't like doing jobs unless I get something
for it. Hey, I said, so do I get the
jump Sting afterwards or no, he's gonna be goodbye. I
walked out.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
That was it, and they find me. They still owe
me five grand and I didn't realize I was losing
the five grand. But they never sent me. They never
sent me the check. But I did the job anyway
on TBS, on television, I didn't do the job. I
just walked out for Vince. At least I did what
(50:54):
he wanted. But then I got on the airplane and
flew home.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Do you think there were ever times where because you
came back a few times after this, after that, do
you think you were ever brought back and the intention
was maybe I've heard this from several guys where they
thought that they've been brought back and then punished in
a certain way.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's funny you should say that I came back. I
was working out and me and Hogan we're good friends.
And Hogan comes up just as after I had already
jumped the ship. I went to w CW for a while,
and then he comes up to me and he goes,
would you come back to WWF if I talked to
(51:34):
Vincent got you in there? And I go, yeah, So
I came back and I had kind of a babyface
turn and I went around and wrestled Dino Bravo over
the place they put me over good. It could have
been a better term for me. But it was getting
along all right and then but he was really just
setting me up for Earthquake at WrestleMania seven in LA
(51:59):
and they wanted me to go out and have Earthquake
beat me in four minutes. And you know, if it
would have done right, maybe jump me from maybe I
should have just done it. But I ended up wrestling
him for eight minutes. And I always thought it was
a horrible match because he was so much bigger than me.
I didn't like it. It was a bad position to
(52:20):
put me in, but I did the job. And then
I quit after that too, but at least I did it.
I did the job. Okay, goodbye.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
You just mentioned earlier too about how the Rumble matches
and the Battle Royals. You weren't a big fan of
the Survivor series, but you had a major, major showing
in one of the Royal rumbles in ninety one.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
I think it was Ronnie Garvin. Oh no, okay, yeah,
And I forgot about rugged Ronney Garvin because that was
a great angle too, But yes, I remember, I was
I think Martel wanted or Hogan or something, but I
was like, I broke the record for being in so
you did me a lot of good things, especially after
I complained.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
How is that match itself? Psychology wise? You guys planning
this in the back as far as are you in
there just kind of winging it because there's so many
people to kind of deal with.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
There's thirty there's no friggin psychology in that. But they
we had little things set up. How we're going to
get get out of the ring. Yeah, it's it's just
a routine type thing. It's hard to get psychology in that.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
He came back another time. You wrestled with Summer Slam
in ninety one, remember this with Mike Rotundo, But he
was irs.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I was a babyface there too, I remember. I remember
it a little bit. I know that I put him over.
I didn't like doing that, but I don't like doing jobs. Sorry.
At least I got a good payday. You know you're
gonna put me in Summer Slam. I know I'm going
to make a good money and and and it's not
(53:56):
always about winning all the time. It's how you lose.
You look like a piece of crap. You know, you
lose a dignity. You know.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
It's April nineteen seventy five and you're making your Madison
Square Garden debut. This is an event that was actually
on HBO as well, which was very new at the time.
You wrestled El Olympico. Do you remember how you felt
wrestling at the Garden for the first time.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
Well, I was in the Garden because of Los Angeles
TV was out there Spanish, the Spanish network, so they
played the Los Angeles Wrestling and I was the America's
champion out there, so they brought me in and I
wrestled this Olympical guy. But you can't have a mask
(54:45):
back then in New York, so they made him cuse
his face out like that. But you know, I watched
that match every once in a while, I got caught.
I was young there, but you know it was I
wasn't really ready for prime time yet. I was close,
you know, I was close. I've been wrestling four years
(55:05):
I think by then, and I just it just elevated.
Right after that. I went to Florida from LA and Oklahoma.
You know, you just I wasn't quite ready for prime time,
but it was a good match.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Was this the first experience you had meeting Vincent Van
or had you met him? I?
Speaker 2 (55:27):
No, his first experience meeting him, met the kid, you know,
so so it was a good Then I came back
again to Masison Square gardener Russell Victor Roberta, who was
out of a was a big star in La too
so and so it was. It was a good experience,
(55:50):
good experience being in New York and everything. It was
nineteen seventy five or six, something like that.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yeah, yeah, seems like just yesterday.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Huh you I bet I was twenty four, twenty five. Yeah,
right after I went back to Los Angeles. So I
finished up in Los Angeles, went to Oklahoma. I didn't
stay there long. Trips were long, and I had an
invitation to come to I met with Jack Briscoe, a
world champion at the time, and he goes, you want
to come to Florida. So he set me up with Florida.
(56:22):
Nineteen seventy four in Florida. I loved Florida. Oh, I
love Florida. All the girls in the bikinis, and there
was wrestling fans all over the place and they love
the wrestling was hot there and it was Gordon Solely.
You know, everybody knows about Gordon Solely. He had such
(56:42):
a good show. They had such good ratings, and you
had Miami, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, you had Tampa. Say, Pete,
what a great territory, what a great territory. After that,
I went into Charlotte and my dad had had to
play crash and he wasn't going to be able to
(57:04):
wrestle anymore. He's lucky to be alive. And they kept
calling me, and I was having such a good time
at Florida. They kept calling me, we want you to
come up here, and I'm thinking, Johnny Valentine, I got
to try to fill my dad's shoes. I just want
to stay in Florida, enjoy the sunshine and enjoy the girls.
(57:28):
I wasn't married at the time, And oh my god.
You know, it was just like it was good wrestling.
Eddie Graham would set you down before you went out
with the young guys and he'd say you do this
and that. He had so much psychology. He knew how
to run the territory. So he ran the territory. Dusty
Rhose is the big, bigger in life babyface there. He
(57:52):
drew tons of money. So it was just a great experience.
But George Scott kept calling me and Jim Crockett from
from from the Carolina. So I ended up going there
and sending in tapes so I'd be breaking boards of
my elbow and all that was good, and they sent
me up real good. I came in to Greensboro, which
(58:14):
is their big big show, wasn't Charlotte because Greensboro had
a a bigger building, and I jumped off the top
rope on Johnny Weaver, the legend there, and that got
me a lot of heat, put him out of wrestling,
and eventually they brought you know, I came in and
(58:34):
I lasted a long time in there, nineteen seventy six
and tagged me up with Rick Flair, and I was
on my way, and it was a great experience. And
you know what, nineteen seventy nine, I'd been there like
four years. Nineteen seventy nine, George Scott calls me and
he says, I'm gonna send you to New York. And
(58:57):
I go, I don't want to leave you, No, I'm
gonna send you in New York. They need talent up
there and very interested in you. So I went there
and and the rest is history. In New York was
awesome to me, massive score card and coming back in
in the main event with the figure four leg lock
(59:17):
Vincentman Seniors, the one that's told me and more or
less taught me teach me. Yeah, guys in the back,
teach me how to put the figure four on it.
I didn't know. I never used it, and he started.
He pushed me that way, and everybody that I wrestled,
they ended up in a figure four and they were
carried out on the stretchers. So he got me over
(59:41):
a big time. He knew how to do that. He
told me, everybody's going to know who I was, who
Greg Valentine was. After he says, after I put you
through the figure four things and breaking legs one after
the other, I was over. It was and and you
(01:00:02):
know the funniest thing. I've been there about a year,
and Vince comes up and says, here's your finishing date.
I've been there for a year, he says, but we're
going to send you back to Charlotte. So I went
back to Charlotte, went right back into Rick Flair again
and turned on Rick Flair and and then I had
the Roddy Piper thing in between. I came back to
(01:00:24):
New York again. So it's great she could go back
and forth. I came back and wrestled back then again,
and then I wrestled Pedro Morales. And don't forget the
Chief j strombo thing or it broke his leg. That
was phenomenal money. And he was such a great guy.
I loved the Chief. I loved all the guys I
(01:00:46):
worked against. Actually, and so eighty four I think I
finally finally left mid Atlantic and the book from mid
Atlantic Charlotte. George Scott was making a move to New York,
so it was all timing. So of course I was
(01:01:08):
one of his guys. He brought Steamboat in, he brought
a lot of different people, and the landscape of New
York was, you know, eventually, way back in the late
late seventies, you know, it was pulling here and and
(01:01:28):
and sticking fingers in the eye. It wasn't wrestling, and
the garden wasn't selling out. It was just stupid wrestling
they were doing. So they brought all these guys in
from the South in different places, and guys that could act,
you know, could wrestle, work, entertain and make it believable.
And Piper came in right after me. You know, it's
(01:01:53):
rest is history, just wrestle Mania one,
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