👹 ONE MAN GANG'S FULL EXPLOSIVE SHOOT: The 450lb Monster's BRUTAL Truth! 💀

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The whole football stadium is so down it's coming your way.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to another edition of old school on high Spots.
I'm Steve Kreno and I am joined by the legendary.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
One Man Gang How Gang. I like to tell.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Everybody that this, this, you know, quote unquote shoot interview,
is not your textbook shooting interview where.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
You're dropping stuff off camera.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Or or or are talking about.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
You know, people you hate or think like.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I like this to be two wrestlers having fun talking
and the camera just happens to be honest, so that
people at home or young, expiring, aspiring wrestlers they might
learn something about, you know, the industry that we love
and we've done so much in and given our lives too,
And so I would like to know, you know, I

(01:13):
always tell the story to people, especially off camera, like
I just stumbled on wrestling one.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Night when I was eight years old and never turned
it off. How did you did you grow up a
wrestling fan?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Huge wrestling fan. I grew up in a little town
called Spartanburg, South Carolina, and my wrestling I didn't have
cable TV, it was just local channels. Mine was, of course,
mid Atlantic Championship wrestling, you know, with all the stars
back then it was Flair, black Jack, Mulligan. I mean,
all the major stars were in mid Atlantic. But the

(01:47):
same situation, just watching TV and just happened happened on
the show. I was probably around ten years old or so,
and it was just instantaneous. Something about it, you know,
attracted me right away.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
And did you know at that moment, like I don't
know why, and you know, I'm not a big believer
in you know, destiny or anything, you know, one of
those things, Like I knew when it was eight years
old when I watched it that, Wow, I know exactly
what I want to be in my entire my life.
And I'm sure like people see baseball or acting and
they want to do that, But like, did you know

(02:25):
at that time that you wanted to be a professional
service It something that you thought about later on.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
That you not from the TV show. When I when
I finally got to go to a live event, that's
when I was hooked. I said, I got to do
this for a living, right exactly exactly. I said, I
have to be able to do this just from the
excitement of the crowd and just just watching it, you know,
I don't know. I something just just got inside of me.

(02:50):
I don't know, man, Yeah, I see the blood and
I see the violence.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
I mean, you know, most kids wouldn't be attracted.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
But to me, you know, I mean I played sports,
you know, I tried football, but I just wasn't quite
good enough, you know, and I was always on the
bench or whatever, you know. But for some reason, wrestling
right away attracted me. It was just the you know,
they get up there and then the promos. I didn't
know they were what they were called it that time,
you know. So but the whole this is the whole

(03:18):
thing of it was just attractive to me. And I said,
I'm gonna do that. That's gonna be what I do
right there, and from then on, anybody, I don't care
anytime somebody, you know, hey, man, what are you gonna
do with your life? I'm gonna be a pro wrestler.
I'm gonna be a pro wrestler. You know, in high
school and they give you a little job things, what
are you gonna do. I'm gonna be a pro wrestler.

(03:38):
And everybody's yeah, right that dad, you know, things loud.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Man.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
But as I grew up, you know, I was a
gigantic I became a gigantic wrestling fan. You know, I
had stack of magazines and the whole gimmick. You know,
I'd get busted in school for like reading the magazine
if you know, put the book teacher and busts me
from reading the magazine because I read every little article,
you know, because I believe everything.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah, you know, I believe.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
It became your your textbook.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
You know, you was like a religion.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yes, absolutely, it was like in a religion.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I mean honestly, I mean, I know it sounds strange.
You know, I don't want to sound like I'm strange
or nothing. But instead of me having a fair Fast poster,
I would have a Superstar Billy Graham poster or a
Dusty Rhodes poster or Terry Funk poster or something like that,
you know.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Right, and Bill After was our Mark tween, you know,
like you would read every word that he wrote exactly.
And you know, you would say a small town of
a small town of smartpurg South Carolina. But Smartbrook was
a great town for mid Atlantic Championship Prince League.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Now when did you start going to the live events?
Were you a fan of watched it on TV and
then eventually got.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
To it Washington on TV. And then you know, later on,
I you know, I met some friends at school that
kind of was wrestling fans. You know, this was later on,
maybe I was twelve or thirteen. I didn't have a
transportation or anything, so that I would hook up with them,
and you know, we would go to the Memorial Lotti
Tour right there in Spartanburg and go see the matches there.
And then you know, later if they had a huge

(05:08):
card in Greenville, which is thirty miles away, you know,
we'd take the little, you know, the hike up to
Greenville and see that. And then if you was you know,
really lucky and you got to go to Charlotte for
a big event or Asheville for a big event, you know,
that was the biggest thing in the.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
World, you know, and back then like it as a kid,
you know, thirty miles his whole long way. Oh my goodness,
I gotta go thirty miles to the you know, or Charlotte.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
It's Charlotte, what forty five from Spartinburg or at sixty sixty. Yeah,
that that you know, people.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Nowadays, like you know, people that aren't wrestling wrestlers are
you know, they go sixty miles. That's a long way
to go, and you're thinking sixty miles I could be
home in an hour. Yeah, like I have a you know,
we're with Salem. I live on the coast, and I
go four hours exactly from house.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Like, this is amazing to me.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's down the street because you end up putting on
so many miles exact in time on the road that
you know, thirty miles, three hundred miles. Oh, it's easy
compared to oh yeah, I gotta go from Philadelphia to
Los Angeles and back.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
And you just accept it as this is what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Now.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
How did how do you break into What year did
you start training?

Speaker 1 (06:25):
I started, well, it was no, I wouldn't call it training, right,
It was like nineteen seventy six. I was sixteen years old.
It was a couple of gentlemen, Well, what happened back
in the old days, which is you know, anytime I speak,
it has to be old days. But you didn't they
didn't have the fancy T shirts like they do now,

(06:47):
you know, so I would have to go to you know,
the local you know, mall or whatever, and you get
them iron on letters on your T shirt, you know.
And I was a big Johnny Valentine fan, so you know,
I had me a little pressed. I'm sure that pat
his name Johnny Valentine. And there was another old time
wrestler called Bulldog Brower. Yeah, you know he because they

(07:10):
came on, uh, mid Atlantic and then they started showing
I c W. I don't know where it came out of,
but you know it wouldn't local, but it was. I
was on TV and that was the first time I
actually saw another show besides mid Atlantic on TV. You know,
I was like, Wow, whole nother wrestling show you.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Had mentioned Bullock Brower or Johnny valentin Were you attracted
right away to the heels like you were always.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
For what you know, always whatever, whatever? And I really
liked the stiff wrestlers. That's why I like Johnny Valentine.
I went to see him in Wahoo McDaniel and oh
my gosh, it was like a war. I mean, these guys,
I was, they were literally killing each other, like you know,
and I was so attracted to that.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
I said, that is the greatest thing ever.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
And you start developing this this style in your mind,
like man, when I I'm a wrestler.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
I'm gonna I'm gonna be stiff like Wahoo and Johnny
and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Like your your life starts, you know, these pieces start
putting together. You think about it years later, like, man,
this is where I started to develop this, and it's it's.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Really your ma am.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
But uh, you know, before even actually broke into wrestling
or whatever you wanna call it, but you know, years
before that, I would I would be at the house
my you know, little house I lived in with my mom.
You know, I didn't have a dad, and uh, I
would be doing you know, promos, you know, I would
get in front of the mirror, you know, and I'd
be like cutting my own promos, you know, and things

(08:36):
like that. And and I would take, you know, a
piece of paper and I'd like make up cards, you know,
all wrestling cards, you know, supercards. I'd take, bring talent
in from all over the world, right right. Yeah, I
didn't even know what I was doing really, you know,
I didn't even know what it was or anything, you know,
And and uh, you know, I was just totally just
wrestling was everything. That's all I thought about. Twenty four

(08:58):
hours a day was wrestling.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
You talk about doing the supercards and stuff like that,
but you know, you said, like you had mid Atlantic
and you had ic W on TV, but you learned
about all these different territories from the from the magazines.
You had learned what was going on in Minneapolis and
what was going on in Houston and New York. And
you know, so when you're you're putting together these imagine cards,

(09:20):
like you're going by the the you.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Know, there's no YouTube, there's no never going through. Man,
this is what I imagine this guy is gonna be,
and this guy's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Ill tell you what I did. I would, you know,
I remember the old tape recorders where he pushed a
button with the microphone. I would tape the promos off
of a TV, you know, and I had to be
doing promos and then I would listen to them over
and over and you know, and I would practice my
own promos that way because we didn't I didn't have
no way.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
We didn't record, we couldn't record the shows.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Didn't have really buy or anything like that. And you
know that's I don't know if it helped me down
the line or not, but you know, that's that's what
I did. You know, it sounds ag is all get out.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
No, no, I think it sounds crazy. The people that
didn't grow up in that year. You know, I see
way like I would have a little you know, I
hit a.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Little of the boom box, but I only had the
little one.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I put the you know, I record myself were commentary.
Like years later I became a commentator. I'm like, my goodness,
I remember when I was twelve, I was.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Doing this exactly exactly seventy six.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Though.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
You know it's there's not wrestling schools on every corner
like there is in today's world.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
How do you okay? This is what happened. Man, I'm
going to tell you I've always had I had all
my T shirts were hanging on the line, clothes line drying.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
You know, we ain't had no dryer. We couldn't afford
stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
So we actually had a clothes line where you go
hang your clothes out of case. People don't understand what
that is, but my T shirts were hanging out there.
And our insurance man back in the old days, you know,
they come to your house. You couldn't pay online and
all that fancy stuff. Actually, the insurance man will come
to your house, you know and get the payment and whatever.
And he saw the T shirts on the on the

(10:58):
line out there, and he and as he was at
the house, he said, well, I see these two T shirts.
But here a wrestling fan or something, you know. And
I said, oh, yeah, I'm a huge wrestling fan. And
I was big anyway, I was a big kids, you know.
And he said, well, if you ever interested in wrestling,
I know a couple of guys that, you know, I
could put you in touch with you right away. I
was really yeah, yeah. So he gave me these two

(11:20):
guys name locally in Spartanburg. You know.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
One was called Jim Wilson, not the football player, but.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
He's not the football Another guy was a local guy
there called Jim Holkm you know. So he put me
in touch with these guys. They never made it big
in the business, you know, just local. They did some
TV jobs for you know, different companies and that, you know,
just job guys here and there. I hate to use
that word, but no.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
And that was the thing, like, you know, people their
enhancements out there. You know, they were job guys because
and he knew.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Their role, like George South meina living, never winning something
like that.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
It was a part of the it was part of
the industry. Like there were job guys or mid guys
or top guys. And it's unfortunate that, you know, we'll even.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Say, like, oh, there's job guys. I hate to call
them that, but you know, it's exactly like they knew.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
What they were supposed to do.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
And you know, I was a job guy in the
mid nineties and like I always took it as Wow,
it was way bigger payday than I was getting on
an independent show, and I was learning like this is
the big time, Like okay, like I'm watching how this
guy acts and how this guy acts and how this
guy conducts himself, and I'm making notes and.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Saying, Okay, I want to be that guy and not
this guy.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Okay, how do I work towards that instead of like
making it a derogatory term.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
But yeah, it's it's scary that, like, you know, we
have to say like a job guy, like but it's
it's true.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
It just comes out so natural. Man, my whole career,
that's what they were called job guys. You know, I
know it sounds horrible now when you say it, enhancement
does sound better. But yeah, anyway.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
You don't mean it to meet him.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
He just knew what their job.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
Without Damn, you wouldn't have my events start.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Absolutely, I mean they're the backbone of what gets the
guys over, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
So well, anyway, I get in touch with these two guys,
you know, and like I said, I was a big
guy anyway that was impressed with my size. So they
kind of took me, took me in with him, you know,
and uh, they would take me to these little towns.
They would go to the little independent shows. Back in
the day we were they were called outlaws outlaw shows.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
So it fans out there that mean not know, and
the outla show was basically anything that wasn't.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
A part of the n W.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
A correct or part of that territory that was there.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yep. Yeah, now it's now it's pretty common independent, you know, so,
but that back then it was an outlaw. We were.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
He was an outlaw, yeah, you know, which was cool sounding.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
But they would take me these shows with them and
would get there and they would take me into the ring.
But you know, as you said, training wise, it was
just it wasn't training. It was just beat the crap
out of me, you know, get in there and slap
me across the chest and hammer me in the back
and you know, just knock me around and slammed me
over and over, you know, and knocked me into the
turn bubbles over and over and over, and I would

(14:12):
come out black and blue and just horrible looking, just
every time. You know. So this just continued over and
over and over, and you know, eventually I started learning,
you know, how to take a fall away, you know.
But they didn't explain it right then, you were exactly.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
And it wasn't the nice rings that they have for
like on the Independence.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
They just basically were more into I believe that they
were more into like an S and M thing. And
I was there, uh you know, a way to get
punched around, you know.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
I mean they didn't let it literally hurt.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Me with punches in the face or anything, but you know,
chopping you and just you know making a you know,
advantage of taking advantage of me because I was just
a young kid, sixteen years old, you know. So but uh,
you know, I stayed with it. I didn't give up.
You know, even though my elbows were black. I mean
they were like literally black all the way around from
you know, going down all my elbows and stuff. But

(15:05):
it won the show. Somebody didn't show up and they
came to me and said, well, would you like to
give it a shot?

Speaker 3 (15:11):
You know, wow?

Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know what was it?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
It was that in seventy six.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
That was in nineteen seventy six. You know, I went
out there just it was nothing. I just went out
and got the crap beat out of me. You know,
I didn't have no idea what I was doing. I
didn't even you know, I didn't even hadn't even learned
what about the bleeding part, you know, and all that shit.
So I was gonna you have boots and you know
not at that time. You know, I just went out
in some tennis shoes, you know, and whatever I had

(15:36):
on basically.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
And were you smart to the business or you knew?
But they didn't smart?

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yep, but you knew, you know now they didn't they didn't,
but they wouldn't never come to you and say, you know, well,
this is this is wrestling work. You know, you know
we do this. I mean, of course we knew. The
guy came to me and this is what we're gonna do.
He was just old you know, just the old guy
and just a tough son of a gun. You know,
went out there with a young kid, like you say.
He took advantage of me and just beat me up

(16:02):
and you know, just pin me. You know, I didn't
have no offense at all. You know, it was just
all him, right, you know. And so you know I
did that several times, and I was just going out.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
I was using, you know, my regular name, George.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
I was just said, did you have a wrestling in
the first few.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Times, no, just going out as Big George or some
later they would call me George the Giant because I
was so big, you know, and then uh, they would
put them if they needed and sometimes they throw a
mask on me, you know, and just call me whatever
they wanted to call me, just to just to have
a match out of me. And it was alaw wrestling,
you know. They they couldn't afford any top stars at

(16:39):
that time, so they just need to fill the card
out making no money. You know. I didn't know nothing
about the money. I don't know if they were you know,
if he got faid. I had no idea. I was
just so so glad to be say, I went into
a wrestling ring.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
You know, you were already a success in your mind
because you love where does it start going from there?
Because you know, what's your first territory that you work?

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Well, first territory what I did that for years, you know,
from time I was sixteen to probably I was around
twenty or twenty one, just doing independence, you know, but
my first it's in how I got really went into
a territory.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
The first big match that to me was a big
match was.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
I don't even know why they contacted me, but the
Atlanta office contacted me. You know, I don't even know
how they got my number. I had no idea, but
they said, you know, would you want to come in
and work a show in the Omni. You know, I
was like what he yeah, what are you talking? Yeah? Yeah,
you know, I said, I didn't even have driver's license.
A friend of mine had the driver's license. He drove
me to Atlanta. The OMNI went in there. They could

(17:51):
have got anybody to do this, but it was they
booked me against Bruiser Brodie.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Bruiser Brody was coming into the Atlanta territory.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
They put a mask on me, called me the Blue Angel,
and it was just a job match. I just went
out there. Brody just kicked me around, threw me around,
beat me all around the arena, threw me back in,
you know with the big jumping knee drop and pin me.
I'm like, you know, I was glad to do it.
Yeah it man, what are you talking about? I was

(18:18):
in dressing room with Jack Briscoe and Bob Backland, you know,
and all these guys. I was.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
I was totally in shocked but also scared to death.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
But I'm like, so, I still don't even understand why
would they call me? Why would they They could have
got anybody in the Atlanta area that work to do that,
you know. But anyway, it was, you know, for me,
it was a great, a great adventure.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
And then they sent me. I think it was a
two hundred dollars check.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
You remember the payoff.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
It was two hundred dollars when I had that, you know,
the Georgia symbol, you know for Georgia Championship Wrestling. You know,
I wished I would have saved it, you know, but
you know, you know, when you're a kid, I just
wanted to spend it on more wrestling magazines. I wish
that he saved it. But you know, I didn't do it.
But but hey, what was you gonna say?

Speaker 3 (19:04):
You go, you go to Atlanta, It's it's your first
time in the Omni.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
You go from you know, the independentual is right into
Georgia Ship Wrestling, which is on you know, Superstation seventeen.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
And I don't even want to start. That was just
one time right.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Right now when you go back to the indies, are
are people looking at you different, like, hey, this is
the guy who was.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Just at the Omni.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Well I had a mask on.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, okay, so you know, like the wrestlers did, they
didn't get around real quick.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Now, No, now, I wouldn't want to go back and
you know, like say, hey, man, I was in there. Yeah,
you know because mostly you know a lot of the
guys that you go, bro, who's bruising like me, I'm like,
it's like I'm wrestling God or something. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Right then, you.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Know, as fate would have it, years later, you know,
him and I had a huge, huge feud in.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
I'm gonna get to that. But anyway, where where okay, so.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Where do you go from there? Okay? He said, I
c w that you break into exactly what happened was
a little group of guys was going up there to
do TV for the pafos in Lexington, Kentucky. A friend
of mine called Jay Eagles going up there and uh,
he had an open seat and an automobile. And I said, hey, Jay, man,

(20:19):
you matter if I wouldn't book now? He said, you
mind if I tag along and go with you guys?
Just take the ride, you know, just see see what's
going on. It's just how an open spot was there.
I went with him to uh, Kentucky, just taking the ride.
Then when I got there, you know, they were all
mingling in the back and stuff, and uh uh. Savage asked, Jay,

(20:40):
you know who's that guy who's the big guy over there?
You know? And he told him, you know, you know
George Way. He's a you know, outlaw wrestler or whatever.
So he said he thinking, you know, would he be
interested in, you.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
Know, working for us? You know, I didn't know this.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Was going on, right, So they come over, you know,
and then Savage said, hey, man, would you be interested
and coming in and working for for us here?

Speaker 4 (21:03):
I said, well, you know, I don't know. I have
to go home and ask my mom.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
You know, you had you had a big long hair time.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Three or eighty two, eighty two, early eighty two. So anyway,
you know, after the show, we go back to Spartanburg,
you know, and I go tell my mom and said, Mom, man,
I gotta you remember now, I'm a only child and
I'm adopted, you know, so it's just her, me and her.
You know, I was a latch key kid as they
call it, you know, that type of you know situation.

(21:32):
But but I told her, I said, this is a
great you know, They offered me, you know, to come
in there full time. And she didn't really understand wrestling
at all, you know, and she was like crying and stuff,
and you know, I said, you know, this is the
only way I can do it. I can't get no
breaks here. You know, I've been trying for years and
I can't. I can't really get into wrestling business. I said,
this is my chance, you know. And she kind of

(21:53):
understood that, you know, because she knew how much I
loved the wrestling business. You know. Then finally she you know,
gave in and said, that's what you want to do. Okay,
you know, I'll give you know, I gave you permission.
You can go and do whatever. So the next a
week later, Jay and him were going back to do
another TV taping, and I went with him, packed up
a few little belongings and went up there to Apatos.

(22:16):
And the stupidest thing was they got this guy there
called big Boy Williams, and Randy wanted me to do
the over the shoulder shoulder breaker. We had to rack,
but this one, this kind here, and this dude is
pretty big dude, you know, and he goes, well, let's
practice it back here before you go out there.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
All right, I'll try it, man.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
So I picked this dude up and had him up
and then it's too much weight on the backside, flipped
me back, you know. We both went back and my
leg went out, you know, twisted underneath me and blew
my knee out, you know. And Randy was like, oh
my god, he crippled my giant So I couldn't I
couldn't even do TV for him. It was supposed to

(23:02):
be my first TV, so I couldn't even do TV.
So I had to go back with Jay and m
you know, back home, and it was like.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
Four weeks before it actually held up.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Then, So when they went back again, because they were
they keep going back and forth just for TV. I
went back with him. Once it held up, and you know,
they still had the spot open. They took me right in.
You know. Then they had the name, they already.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Had the name, already had the name figured out, Crusher Broomfield.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
They had the whole gimmick figured out, you know, country
board from South Carolina and all the whole gimmick had
the little cowboy had on with the you know, stars
and bars and all that crazy, you know, which I
was from South care It was a legit thing, you know,
and the long hair, the beard and all that, you know,
and and I'd never really done promos or anything. So

(23:49):
I was nervous as heck about that. And thank goodness,
I really didn't have to talk too much till a
little bit later, you know, because ended up I was,
you know, I was. I got to stay with Savage
for like first couple of months, literally stayed with him
in his in his house, you know, because I didn't
have anywhere to live, and they took care of me
because I still didn't I wouldn't drive him then, you know,
so they really took care of me well and had

(24:11):
a great, uh, you know, some great matches with leaping Lannie,
big angle with him, and then you know, as time
went on, they did a big angle Ronnie Garvin where
he bought my he won my contract. Savage had a
contract on me where he was supposedly taking care of
my sister's doctor Bill's who were in the hospital, who

(24:32):
was in the hospital for me, you know, to be
like a servant to you know, I was indebted to him,
whatever he had. I had to do what he said.
He you know, one time he said, I'm gonna show
you know what his savage voice. I can't do it,
but I'm gonna show you people how much I still
you know, I still rule Crusher Broomfield. Get down there
and kiss my feet. You know.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
I order you too, you know, and I'm like, what
the heck, you know, giving them crazy?

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah, I'm telling you get down there. You remember that
doctor Bills, you get down there, you know. So I
had to get on the floor. I kissed his feet,
you know, just stupid stuff, you know. So anyway, Garvin,
when's my contract? I turned baby face against it, you know,
against him, and then we did that and then as uh,
a little time later they hooked up with I guess

(25:17):
Ernie Ladd knew Angelo, Yes, and Ernie Ladd, you know,
sent some interviews in talking about you know, I'm coming
up there, crush your brother fell and I'm gonna spank
you like your mama shut I had. Now you see this,
it's gonna be you know how you're talking about crazy.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's that a thrill for you knowing you know Ernie
from the magazine Screw.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Like, are you like I have just hit the jack?

Speaker 1 (25:42):
I thought it was.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
I thought I was in the big time already.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
Man, I was up. They were macho man, Randy Savage leaping,
Lannie Angelo was just the miser. Uh, Bob Orton was there,
Bob rup was there, Ronnie Garvin was there, Pas Walley
was there. So what he to a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
I c W was uh considered an OUTLA group because
they weren't affiliated with it with the n W. But
they had so much, they had so many top guys.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Now, what was the what was the territory like?

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Was it?

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Uh? You know how many nights a week?

Speaker 1 (26:14):
We were pretty much We're working somewhere every night. A
lot of these Kentucky towns and places like last night
I was in Madison, West Virginia and I looked I'd
have been there's you know, I c w you know,
And as a matter of fact, several of the older
fans came up and said, I remember you when he
was here as Crusher Broomfield.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
He was in a.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Steel cage with WATCHO man Randy Savage.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
I'm like, wow, I remember. Yeah, but they remember so
many facts.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, you know, and so what an impact that you have.
You know, you're you're you're in your your first territory,
right and.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
You're thinking, man, this is cool, and what what does
my career have in front of me?

Speaker 3 (26:54):
And these people now thirty thirty three, thirty four years later,
they remember that from It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
The impact that you can have on somebody's life through pro.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
Wrestling, right exactly.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
But I wasn't making you know, the money wise it
was you know, I wouldn't. You wasn't making big money.
You know, you make thirty dollars here, fifty dollars here,
if you really was doing well, one hundred dollars, one
hundred and fifty dollars, you know, you know, but you know,
for a week you might come out, you know, for me,
I might come out with six or seven hundred dollars,
you know, for the week, you know, right, So, and

(27:28):
I split apartment with me and Pez Watley and another
guy split you know, three of us in one apartment. Yeah,
split it that way and things like that. And for
getting back and getting around to the towns because I
didn't drive, they had a ring truck, so that I
would crawl in the back of the ring truck, find
the softest two by four I could find or whatever,
and lay up on that thing for you know, three

(27:50):
hundred miles.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Why didn't you drive to you?

Speaker 1 (27:53):
It's just well, when I was growing up, we couldn't
afford an automobile, so I never really had the opportunity
to learn, you know, and because we didn't have no car,
I didn't have no chance to learn that.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
How old were you when you get a license?

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well, when I left ICW, and I was probably twenty
two twenty three. And then when I right before I
went to the Louisiana I went back home to South
Carolina after I left ICW, and that's when I got
my driver's license because guy was up there called Gary Royle,
and rode with him when I left his house, and

(28:26):
he had an old LTD there and I didn't have
the money to buy, you know, so he put it
you know, like a I mean, I, you know whatever.
I don't even remember what it cost. Fifteen hundred dollars maybe,
but he said, you know, you give me install my payments,
you know, because he knew I was going to Mid
South wrestling, you know, but if you just pay me
off as you go, you know.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
So I didn't even have a driver's license.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
We took mud and covered up the tag you know
and stuff, and you know, I just got behind the
wheel and took off, you know, I didn't. You know.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
We drove all through the mountains. I drove back.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Home and then went to get my driver's license. I
failed the first time because I couldn't parallel park, you know.
So I said, well, I'll go to another police department,
not realizing they're hooked up a computer. His policeman was like,
you just had you just tried to test and failed.
You're supposed to wait, you know, so many days. I said, man,

(29:20):
I got this, you know, job opportunity coming up, and
I really need a driver's license, you know.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
And he said all right.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
So we took a little test and he said, oh
you passed and gave me my driver's license, you.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Know, and you go from ICW down to Mid.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
South, right, Well that's because Ernie Ladd r Ernie Ladd situation.
He came in. We we had two or three matches
in different cities, you know, and did big business.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
You know.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
I was the baby face, he was the heill. So
he goes back to uh Mid South Wrestling. I stay
in ic W, you know, for another three or four months,
and what unknown to me that he's down there and
he tells, you know, Bill Watsman, you got this guy
out there, you know, working, You need to get him.
You know, he's talking, you know, putting me over. And

(30:05):
so they make a deal with the pafos and they
start sending me to Louisiana.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Oh sir, are you working both at the time. Wow,
that's gonna.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Be back and forth, you know, between the two. So
what they were doing in Mid South, they would bring
me in and uh scannedor with me me at the
airport and we would go to the arena where it
might be Baton Rouge. They might fly me into New Orleans.
The show would already be started. So I would sneak
in the back entrance nobody knew who I was. So

(30:38):
during the main event, like it may be Dusty or
Dick Murdoch or whoever you know they were, you know
which they had set it up, and then I would
do the run in, you know, act bard wave men,
come on, come on, I'll do the big run in,
and they'll just demolish the babyface, you know, and give
him the big couple of big splashes and they would
stretcher him out and they were you know, they had

(31:00):
the cameras on so they would film it. I did
this several times, you know, with the top baby faces.
So eventually what happened was I didn't even have a name.
You can yeah, I think you can find on YouTube.
Even now they're like, uh, you know Bill Watch is
doing the commentary with Boyd Pierce. He's like, who is it?

(31:20):
I think Boyd Piers is going who is this big man?
And the scandorac Bars found no name. My shirt has
crush your on it. I got this old cut off
sleeve shirt looking thing has crush You're on him. My
tights things thats c B on it, crush you. But
they're like, who is this big man that Bars found?
Where did he find this man at and he still

(31:41):
ain't had a name for me. This went on for
several weeks.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Now, No, it was that done on purpose that you
didn't have a name, or they were trying to figure.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Out I guess it was done. I'm not sure, you know,
maybe he just didn't know yet.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
You know, the genius of Bill lots like I was
just I can give you a name, you let let
it be a mystery.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
Or is this where one man ag is born?

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Where was born?

Speaker 5 (32:01):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (32:02):
They well, what they did they put all this film
together and made a compilation ye, showing me is destroying
these main event he's a main event stars now boom
boom boom, boom boom. And then finally just out of
just out of his mouth came He's a one man gang.
And then from then all act born. Next time we
did an interview, that's what Acbar said. I got one man.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Gang right here, blah blah.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
And the thing was, you know, even though I didn't
people didn't know me. I mean, they knew me from
what I'd been doing. Just because of the strength of
Mid South TV, I was already in the main events.
Soon as I went in full time, I was already
rebounded to the main events because i'd already you know,
I've done all this damage to their stars, right, So
that's you know, I was pretty smart on Bill's Bill's

(32:46):
behalf to do that, you know.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
And for for you that you know, you you mentioned,
you know, six hundred dollars was a good week, and
I see love you.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Well, now what's the difference when you go to MIT
South and you're a top guy right away?

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Like, yeah, crowds, of course, crowds everything everything. But there's
the thing. Man, when I left my house, you know,
to go to Louisiana, man had I didn't have nothing. Man,
I barely had enough money to get gas, you know.
So I pull up and I don't even know where.

(33:20):
I pulled up in the Baton Rouge, you know. And
I couldn't afford a hotel because I had no money,
you know, So I just pulled in a parking lot,
I said, I just pulled in here, you know, And
I was sleeping away, you know, had like some coke
cans when I bought some crackers and you know a
little thing of blown or something. You know, I'm sleeping
away and there's a knock on the window and here's
a policeman. What you doing? You can't be out here,

(33:42):
you know, And I said, oh man, I'm sorry, I
didn't know.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
I said, you know, I'm coming.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
In for Mid South, you know, Championship wrestling, and and uh,
I don't you know, couldn't get.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
A room or anything, and I'm just coming in. This
is my I just got here.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
And the way it says you can't stay here, And
I said, well, you know, the only person I know
contact is Grizzly Smith. You know. Yeah, the policeman contacted him,
you know, and Grizzly kind of smoothed out, you know.
And then then after that, you know, Grizzly told Bill,
you know, said, uh, you know, George don't don't have
any money for to to live on, you know, so
Bill gave me an advance to get an apartment and everything.

(34:20):
I always respected him for that. You know.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
You don't hear about the what you heard about how
like you know, he's militant, he was, you could have
been a bully.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
He was, you know, mean to people.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
It's right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
I had an interview Jack Victory, and you know he
was just like he was.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
He was none of those to me, you know, I
you know, if he liked you, he really liked you,
that gat.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
You give me advance. Of course he took it out
of my paying a little at a time. He wasn't
all ripped out at one time, but he'd take a
little bit fifty dollars fifty until he was paid off.
You know. But uh, but like you say, I mean
he was.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
Very very strict.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
He was. But you're running a company. He's got certain
rules you had to follow. You got to be at
that building one hour before time. Uh. Big on KFA.
Of course, you know, separate the hills and baby faces
don't ever be seen together because in Louisiana people believed
the TV so things like that, you know. But I

(35:17):
loved it there. I never really had no trouble with
Bill at all. You know, you took really good care
of me down there. Like I said, I wouldn't make
a junk yard dog money.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
But uh, and that was you know, it's always been
known as, uh, you know, a real hard territory because
you know, you're driving so much during the week, eight.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Shows a week, seven days a week exactly.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
And you know, for for someone like you, that's you.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Know, I was in heaven that's why it's gonna And
Jack Fetory said the same thing, How is your body?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Did your body just get used.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
To the the wear and tearing of just living the
life on the road and you're you're making money and
every night.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
You know, to me, every night was I was just
in heaven.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
You know.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I'm like, here I am with even bigger stars than
ic W. I thought that was big. Now here I
come in, you know, with Ted Dbuss and mister wonderful
Paul Orndorf and then here comes Andre the Giant.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
You know, here I am a young kid. That's my
first Superdome show.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Wow. You know, me and Harley Race as a team
against Andre the Giant and Captain Redneck Dick Murdoch.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
I mean here, I am just a punk.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Kid just come out of ic W, you know, and
that's my you know, one of my first big super
Dome shows, as that was the first one I was on,
you know, and you imagine going out there, here's you know,
twenty five thousand people.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
And it's not even the crowd with the world with
one of the best walls.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
You are you're talking about man, come back in.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
LFE B right now you hear the stories from guys
that you know, Andre was the greatest guy unless he
didn't like you.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Now, did you know that going end?

Speaker 1 (36:54):
It had no idea. Okay, so you didn't know, you know,
just from being a fan. Yeah, but I had no idea,
you know, anything anything like that. To me, I was
just in awe. This is Andrea the Giant who can
get you can't I die right now?

Speaker 4 (37:10):
I'm the happiest man in the world, you know working with.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Him, Like, did you know it was something that you
guys clicked right away?

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Or yeah, we clicked right away.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
You know.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
I'm a big guy, but up against him, I was
a little kid, you know, but.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
He would have to be amazing for the fans because
they've seen you crush all these baby big big guy territory.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
And then the biggest guy in the industry.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Came and the thing and the thing about is you know,
when when I pound on him, he'd go down. You know,
he'd constantly be telling me, come on more and more,
and he was like, you know, yeah, it's Andre Giant.

Speaker 7 (37:41):
I'm beating up Andrea Giant right. Very very unselfish, because
he very unselfish. He's the biggest star in the world.
Allowing this green punk kid that he don't know from jack.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Off to be able to do this, you know. Yeah,
I mean, that's just amazing to me that he did that,
you know, and then and not to go ahead of myself,
but you years later, this is still Andre thing. Years later.
A few years later, I was in Florida Championship Wrestling
and where they brought Andre in and I was the
big heel down there, and then we had single matches,

(38:12):
so you know, I go out there and I'm bumping,
you know, every time he touches me, I'm taking a bump.
You know. So after the match is over with, we
go back to the dress room and he calls me,
he boss, come in, He goes, I don't want you
doing that out there. I'm here to get you over.
I'm already over. I'm here to get you over, you know.
And I thought, you know, from then, I thought that
was man, that was That's nice of that dude.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, and I think that's such an
endorsement that, you know, here's the biggest star in the
wrestling world is Yeah, he's he's thinking of he could
have come in and just beat you and he would
have got his money and made him back money.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
But he knew he didn't even have to say those words.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
This is andre the giant. You don't have to call
me over there and say that to me. He could
just like you say, get his money, go buy his business.
But he actually took the time to, you know, call
me over, you know, and explain that to me. You know,
I'm here to get you over. You know, I'm already
over right here to get you over.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
So you've already you know, and now thinking about it
all these years later, like well, you.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Must have you know, shown him the respect that you know.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
He was looking for us, for him to take care
of you like you were you always a humble person right.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
From the Oh, of course, what are you taking?

Speaker 1 (39:25):
These are heroes of mine, I says, I mean, like
you know, if I was.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Me Andreas always yes, sir, No, sir, you know.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Very very you know, proper, you know, I mean, but
that's with everybody until I get to know him, you know,
to feel comfortable with him. But when I was a
young kid, of course, I mean I was show him
respect and I would tell him straight up, man, I
watched you since I was a you know, I had
no shame I watched you since I was a little kid,
you know, and even guys, it wasn't like main event

(39:53):
stars that time. I remember I was at a building
for mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling and one of the ring
crew guys come and I said that lives like Clondac Bill.
And then he walked by and I said, are you
Clondac Bill And he said, yeah, I'm Clondact Bill. And
I said, oh, man, he was one of my favorites
growing up. You know, I may it really missed something
to him.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, absolutely, and me growing up, you know, like I
had seen you Texas and uw F and of course.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
W w F and w c W. The first time
I meet you in e c W, I'm like, wow,
that's gang Like I've seen him beat up baby faces
all my life and like to shake your hand, You're
like nice to me. I'm like, oh, he's such a
nice guy, Like, you know, you're so humble and everything.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
I thought, Oh, this is coolest guy.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
He's been to the top of the mountain and he
just he.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Treats everybody the same. Man thought. Sorry, business, you know,
and in the same business, trying to make a little living,
trying to put some food on the table, you know.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Yeah, and at the end we were all wrestling fans.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
They got two wrestling fans. That's the deal.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
You know, we know what it's like to put our
money down for a ticket. Yeah, you know, and goes
see a live event. That's what I always I tell guys.
I say, I don't care if there's five people out there.
You go out there like it sold out because those
five people paid their hard earned money, just like ten
thousand people did, you know. And I've always said, you know,
I don't care how many people was in the crowd.
I always tried to give it a hundred you know,

(41:17):
when I was wrestling one hundred and ten percent all
the time.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
You know, right now, how long did you stay that
first time in Mid South?

Speaker 4 (41:26):
First time was about eight months? Eight months?

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Bill came to me one day and said, you know, George,
we just were about run to you know, run what
we can run with you. And he says, it's gonna
be time for you to move on. You know, I
was kind of dishearted, you know, move on what he's
talking about? Yeah, And he said, uh, I already got
you hooked up. I'm gonna send you this to Memphis,
you know. And I didn't know Memphis from nothing, man, right,

(41:53):
I mean I knew of the area, of course, but
I didn't know nothing about it, you know. And I said, oh,
it's fine, okay. So you know, by then, I was
already with my wife, you know who. I've been here
for thirty two years. So we packed up and you know,
we went to Memphis. You know.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
But when I got to Memphis, they wouldn't use me
as one man game.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Now, were you back to being Crusher Broofield, the.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Crush of Broomfield? Because the icwtv's crossed over in that area.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Right, and what a lot of people might not know
or even if they too, there was so much internal
heat between the Memphis office and ICW that you know, uh,
you know, Randy Savage would go on ICWTV and he would.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Challenge Jerry lowl Or and build Dundee and they would
shoot too. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, you challenge of baby bottle matches and everything. You
want to fight, you come and fight, you know, and
you know, like Savage. I mean, people ask me about Savage,
you know, great guy took care of me, taught me
a lot, But they go, was he really like that?
And I say, twenty four hours a day, very intense,
very very intense, twenty four hours a day. Great guy though, Yeah,

(43:04):
talent wise, you couldn't put on top that microphone his interviews.
I mean if I saw if I was a wrestling
fan and saw one of the interviews, I'm going to
buy a ticket. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Absolutely. He was so different than everybody else at unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Now, uh, now you go into Memphis, You're back to
crush your broinfield.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
You understand why at the time, or you're just like, no.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Are you understood why? Okay? Yeah, I understood that it
was from ICW TV. I didn't want to do it, Yeah,
I understood. I wanted to be one man gang, right,
but you know Lawler and him, you know they want
to crush your Broomfield because they wanted to beat CRR.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Broom exactly right.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
And did you feel right away that you were in
here not to contribute or draw money you're you're into.
I knew Lawler was going to throw this right at
the Pathos and say, hey look at this and beating
your big guy right.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Exactly now, do you is that something that's disheartening? Like
you know, man, like you know I want to.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Contribute, but you guys have a different motive on how
to put me on there.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Right. They put me with Cornett. Cornett was my manager,
you know, but really when you.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Were Cornett's first.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Wrestler exactly, you know, I tell Jim now, I said,
here's the man that ruined my career.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
It was wild, like, now, what were you thinking? Did
you know Jim going in there that? You know, he
was a photographer and the manager.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
Had no idea. I knew nothing about Memphis, guys.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
You know, I knew some of the names, you know,
Jerry Lawler and those types, just from magazines, but I
didn't really know nothing about the territory. But you know,
you know, in the long run, it ended up being
you know, I just couldn't survive, man. I was starving
to death.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
And even on top of it wasn't it wasn't money.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
I'm not I'm not saying all the guys were that way.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
I don't know. For me, it was it was just horrible.
You know, I was eating you know, potatoes, raw potatoes
and whatever. I just couldn't. You're coming from a.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Good tip paining territory when you're on top to you know,
Memphis that wasn't you know what about the style? Did
you see a huge difference in style of the Memphis
style compared to the mid.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Soullid Memphis was a whole lot more gimmicky, you know,
you know, it's just you know, it just was just
real gimmicky and what really you know, let me tell
you another good story about it. You know, A good
thing that happened was I went to a town and
I was I actually was on the booking sheet. I
don't know. There was one of the towns they run.
And I get to the town and I'm in the

(45:32):
corner getting dressed, minding my own business, and the promoter
comes over and says, well, what are you doing here.
I said, well, I'm booked tonight, and he goes, no,
you're not booked. I said, it's on the booking sheet. No, no,
it's not on the booking sheet. And I said, well,
I know it is. I reach my bag, I pull
out the booking sheet and there's my name, Crusher Broomfield.
He goes, well, that's a mistake. You're not supposed to

(45:53):
be here, and I'm not gonna pay you. You know,
he says, you might as well get dressed put your
clothes back on, and you know, because you're not on
the car. So I said, you know, I'm just still
a young kid, you know. I don't I can't stand
up to these people. It ain't like years later when
I'm one man gang swinging a chain or something. You know.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
God, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Don't have no power. So I put my clothes back on.
I walk outside to the vehicle. My wife Mary's with me,
and I explained the situation and Coco beware sitting outside
the building, you know, and he says, hey, man, what's
the problem. I said, well, I was you know, I'm
on the booking sheet, but I'm not booking. A guy
told me to leave. This is you know, a couple

(46:35):
hour drive, you know. And he goes, uh, he's not
you know, told me wasn't gonna pay me or anything.
Coco said, you wait right here. So Coco goes in
the building for about ten minutes. He comes back out
and he goes, here's twenty dollars. Man, you at least
you get some gas money, you know. So oh, you know, Coco.
I didn't know Coco from nobody, but you know, he

(46:55):
actually went in there and helped me like that. You know,
I always remember that, you know.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Right, you're remember stuff, you know, money monetarily it was
twenty dollars, right, but it was the fact that you know,
he was a good brother and you went and fought
for you to get.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
That twenty dollars.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
You know, even if it was two hundred, it was
still the same because Wow, somebody did something nice for you.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
You know, all these years later, you remember, I do
remember those stories over that.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
And then, uh, you know, about another month went by.
I was just still starving to death, and uh, I
called Bill Wats on telephone, you know, because he gave
me his numbers, and you know, so I called him
up and said, Bill, man, I you know, I'm starving
to death here. And he said, what's the problem. And
I explained to him what was going on. He said,
give me about thirty minutes. And I said, okay, I

(47:43):
had no idea what he meant. So about thirty minutes
later he calls me right back. He goes, uh, pack
your bags, we're gonna send you the mid Atlantic Championships. Wow,
I'm going home. Man, it's a big time mid Atlantic.
What are you talking about? You know? So me and
my wife packed up in and you know, snuck out
the apartment.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
In the middle of the night so we were not.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
So we wouldn't have to pay all the fees and stuff.
You know, had a little U haul and heading the
mid Atlantic, you know, heading over there. And then and
you know, and as my example of al Bill Watts
took care of me, you know, he took me from that,
took me to mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling, which is a
whole lot better for me. But then I got to
go back as one man gang my first time, in

(48:28):
my very first time in Uh, Johnny Weaver was doing
like the commentary, you know, we have a local guy
coming in now, George Gray coming in from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
And I'm like you, I'm like, what dag? You know.
But then it was stopped after that, just one time
they said that on the TV, you know, and then
from then on he went as one man gang, you

(48:48):
know from Chicago.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
But now who who came up with Chicago?

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Uh? Well for you know, well I was born in Chicago.
I was born I was born in Chicago. Maybe not Hostede,
that's Gary Hart born in Chicago. I lived there until
I was six years old, and then my mom who
is from South Carolina, Spartanburg. She left from Chicago and
took me and we went to Spartanburg and right from

(49:15):
six years old alone, that's where I was raised.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Well that's great.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
So you get to you get to I'm at home now,
I'm in Atlantic Championship Wrestling. What are you talking about?
Just to be under that banner? Now?

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Are you with j at this point?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Jet? Or you're just You're just you?

Speaker 3 (49:31):
You're one main gang.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
And what they put me with they put me with
Oliver Humper.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
Yeah, I was with Humperdink.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
Now how long are you in Charlotte?

Speaker 4 (49:43):
For Charlotte, I stayed pretty much a little over a
year year and a half.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
You know, you know, what's the what's the schedule like there?

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Now you've been to i c W, where it's you know,
almost seven nights a week. You've been to Memphis, which
is drive track drive, Then you're Memphis.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
When you Louisiana, I mean I'm sight in Louisiana. Memphis,
then you go to Charlotte is still very busy, real busy, right,
seven days a week or.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
Seven days a week, and they were going at it.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
No, you know, how are you now stationed back at
home where a lot of the boys lived in Charlotte, right.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
I was living in Charlotte, okay, because well, you know,
it was just easier because you do TVs and promos
and things. You know, it's just easier. I mean, the
first time I got to actually, you know, be in
the auditorium in Spartanburg, you know, that was the biggest time.
I tell people, that's one of the biggest things ever
for me to actually be a main event in Spartanburg
Moral Auditorium against the boogie Woogie man Jimmy Vay, you know.

(50:39):
And I actually got to when I got it winning
in dress rooms, to me, it was like being some
you know how fans are like Boston gardens or something
is like hollow halls or something. This is this is
a dress room.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Man.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
For all them years I watched wrestlers come out of
this dressing room right here I am, you know, And
that was the exact same way when I came out,
you know, to go to the ring. I always say,
you can never go home. It was. It was pretty bad.
It was like, man, you ain't no one man gang
you George Gray from over here, from over here in Arcadia.

(51:13):
What are you talking about? I know you. I went
to high school with you. Yeah, exactly so hot at
that man, he was on fire were talking about. Yeah, yeah,
that was that was a big, you know, big lucky
thing for me that they booked me against him. You know,
we had a big, a big angle, you know, had

(51:33):
a big run and uh then a little bit later
they throwed in Bugsy mcgrawl. He got in the act
with us, and you know, and I was in the
house of Humper Dink. So man, I had a great
time there. You know.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Now you know, Memphis pays down, but you go to
Charlotte the house.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
To you know how you know, finances are way better.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
Right, oh, way way better.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
I mean it really went up.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
When when you're in Charlie now you're working, and.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I'm in Charlotte with Flair, now.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Steamboat story booking at that is booking and so you know,
the former world champion. You know, you got Flair, you
got Steamboat, and you have all these starts baling times
there probably time.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Was there what one match I had? I mean this
was like you know for me, like I say, there's
a lot of big matches, but in mid Atlantic when
I got to mid Atlantic. It was I went to
the town. I didn't even know really what the match was,
you know, I was I was booked in it, you know.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
You know, it's hard to keep up with sometimes, you know.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
I got to the town. It was me and the
Hammer of Greg Valentine, who were the Hills against Flair
and Roddy Pipers, you know, and I'm like, wow, this
is incredible, you know. And I went out there with Roddy,
you know, whizzing the rain. He starts at boom boom boom,
boom boom, and he give me the big one. I

(52:56):
took a bump through through the rope, you know, to
the floor. He's like, he's kind of stunned that, you know,
I was so big and and did that, you know,
and he looked at his fish. You know. It was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yeah, And you know the rare Flair is the baby
face but like you know, known for such a heel
so and you know him Flair and Balance I had
such great chemistry against and scheming exactly with each other.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
You know.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
So you're with them, you're with Humperdink. It's a great time.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Great we got to I got to be the one
half of the mid Atlantic Taps. Yeah. I had no
idea that was happening. We just showed up at the
Greenville A Moral I touring for the one night tournament,
and they ended up they put the belts on us.
You know, did you guys team before or is that
like yeah, we teamed a couple of times, but nothing serious.

(53:50):
You know, thought this is you know, I don't know
what it was, you know, but we got the titles.
You know, I wouldn't gonna complain about it. You know,
I took my pictures with him. I for sure.

Speaker 8 (54:00):
You know that the first championship you held, Yeah, yes,
it was okay for a title library really hell right,
here I am in.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
The biggest I mean when I grew up watching and
here I am holding the mid Atlantic Tag Team championships.
You know, like, oh my, like a little baby or something.
Oh my god, I went to bed with it, right.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
And you know, and sometimes I think, you know, wrestling
fans think like, oh well, titles don't mean anything, or
you know, it's we're holding something that we grew up
watching exactly.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
And it's sometimes that a championship.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Can be a you know, everything that you worked for
to get to that point where here, here, this is
this is a token or appreciation or man, you're drawing well,
or you know, in a case like this is, man,
everything that I watched as a kid is now and

(55:01):
everything I've worked for is now in my hands, and
it means something.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
There's something to me anyway, absolutely and anybody else.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
To me, it was the biggest honor in the world,
and I.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Think you know, it's something that a lot of wrestlers
are afraid to admit that.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Oh man, this.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Championship meant a lot to me.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
And you can have different reasons why that championship meant
something where you know, every NWA World's Champion will tell
you like, wow, man, it was it was the justification
for everything I went through and showed that I was
the best in the business. And you know, okay, you
know it's a title because it's a work. Oh we
shouldn't care about it. But there's different reasons why wrestlers

(55:40):
like different championships because you know, we were fans or
you know, man, we worked so hard to get to
the top and this was.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Our reward exactly, and a.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Lot of wrestlers, you know, they won't titles because they
know if they carry that title, they're gonna be elevated
on the car. And back in the old school days,
we were paid according to the levels. Be where you were.
If you're the main event, you're making good money. And
it drops down, of course you opening match is not
gonna be quite as good.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
But you know, so if you had the.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Title, you're gonna be semi our main event, you know,
somewhere in that range, which really helps the paychecks for you.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
There for a year and a half. Now, is this
where you go to Texas the first time?

Speaker 1 (56:24):
No, no go back. All these times leave there and
I may have three or four or five weeks in
between territories, so I already go back to Bill, you know, Louisiana,
and he would automatically throw me right into the mix,
you know, just keep my paychecks up, you know, always,
because I was already established this one man gang, you know,

(56:46):
at the Louisiana area. So he'd bring me right in.
We'd do a quick angle with somebody, and boom, we're
off and running for next three or four five weeks,
just for one circus.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Yeah, And then after mid Atlantic, Dusty had made me
an offer to come to Florida Championship Wrestling. You know,
and when I say make an offer, it's not like
you're sitting down and working contracts. Yeah, you know, it's
not like it is now. Of course, you know, back then, opportunity,
that's all it was. You know, he was just he

(57:16):
just came to me and said, you know, Gang, because
I'd worked Dusty you know, in Mid Atlantic. I'd worked
him in Mid South several times, bull ropes and all
kinds of things, you know, so he just came to
me and said, would you be interested in you know,
coming to Florida Championship Wrestling, you know, heck yeah, being
interested in it? You know. So I finished out in
Mid Atlantic, well, me and Kelly we lost the tag

(57:38):
team titles to Big Joel the Duke and Freight Train Rufus. R.
Jones took the freight train from Rufus. You know, I
took the freight two freight trains in the big head
but boom. Then Joel the Duke come in and gave
me the big splash or something and beat me. You know.
You know, Humber didn't got hot and he went to

(57:59):
Crockets and go, why you beat the one man gang?
Why didn't you beat Kelly Kaninski, you know, and they
was like, what ever did you know? But anyway, I
finished out my dates in the mid Atlantic and you know,
went to Louisiana. Then when I finished up in Louisiana
after the little circuit, we we went on to to
Florida to Florida Championship Wrestling in Florida. Yeah, and that's

(58:20):
where I met up with JJ Dillon. Okay, that's where
I'm at the first time. You know, uh, JJ was
managing me when I first went in there. You know,
I had the crazy like a big fur rug looking
thing or something. I don't know where, you know, I
don't even know where that comes from, some rug you
ball down at the local rug shop, right, But I
had like a chain here, and that's when I started

(58:41):
carrying the chain and looking all crazy. You know, it
still had the long hair, no mohawk yet, right right?

Speaker 3 (58:46):
What made you at the chap you know, is this something?

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (58:51):
Now?

Speaker 3 (58:51):
It's just you knew you needed something.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Made because you know, I went to Japan with Bruiser
Brodie and I saw him over there.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Swing you won, I said, I'm from cop.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
That right, And then it works out so well guys.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
It did work out. But uh, you know, Championship Wrestling
there put me with JJ Dillon to start, you know,
and I was just destroying people left and right. And
of course you had black Jack Mulligan there, so that's
an automatic fit, you know. And the Dusty was there,
so it's with him. Mike Rotundo, Barry Wyndham was there,
so they put me with Ron Bass, Cowboy Ron Bass.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
We teamed up and uh we did you know, I
had a good time.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Florida was like a vacation, paid vacation, right a pretty easy.
All the riots were easy except Miami, you know, from Tampa.
That's the only really hard one. That's not that hard really,
you know. But you had to go to Bahamas every
once in a while. Had a riot in the Bahamas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, me.
I was working black Jack Mulligan and the finish was

(59:53):
I had to pull out the brass nuts and knock
him out. You know, we're in the Bahamas. The little
stadium we worked in it was outdoor, vince you and
you know they put glass up on the durned thinger
to keep people off the walls and jump. So to finish,
we were going, you know, and I'm pulling nuts out
and busting with it and pinning and then the people
right it, you know, they start throwing chairs in the ring.
I had a chain like a helicopter, knocking them down,

(01:00:15):
you know. Boom boom, boom boom.

Speaker 7 (01:00:16):
Now you're scared at this point, like, you know, cause
I had bad vision and.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
You can't show like shit, Oh shit, yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Got bad vision, you know, with these glasses.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
So you know, I made my way out of the
ring and they were still just chunking chairs at me,
you know, and I'm batting them away with that chain,
you know, hitting people and everything else. And I get
back finally dive into the dressing room. They're dropping cinder
blocks down, you know, the dressing room. Boom. I'm in
the dressing room and it takes probably two hours for
the police to you know, separate all these people outside

(01:00:49):
the door. They're pounding on the dressing room door. So
finally they get all the police out of there, and
they you know, encircle me and basically get me out
and get me out of the place. That was man,
I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
I'm in the Bahamas.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Well that's what I'm all over this match, man, I
would have lost the black check if I knew who
sends us finished?

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
What's the heck this about Dusty?

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Oh that's great. Did you get along great with Dusty?

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Or real good? Real good, real good? Uh? I mean,
what can you say about Dusty? A man had the
greatest mind in the world for for wrestling, you know,
finishes and whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
It was the greatest ever. I don't care what anybody
tells you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
And did you get to stay, uh be around Eddie
Graham much?

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
I was?

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I was, well, I met the man a few times.
We were one. One thing was was it the little
Eddy Gramd Sports Arena they head in Orlando where we
used tend to do the shows, And it was before
the show started. We was in the back there as me. Uh,
Eddie was out there, mister Graham and and Kevin Sullivan,
who you know kind of I went with him later too,

(01:01:58):
you know, but Kevin Sullivan was there and somebody else.
But anyway, Eddie Graham was like, you know, going, well,
you know, on the Marquee he's talking about I guess
he was talking about me. He was on the Marquee.
He says professional wrestling, you know, because he's real big
about you know, that's being stickler, you know. And Kevin
Sullivan says, Eddie, look at this man right here, he

(01:02:18):
ain't nothing but a living gimmick. He can't be a
prof you know, he can't wrestle. He's a gimmick, right,
And he just said, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
He didn't get it because he was like from Wales school.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Yeah, Kevin would tell me that Eddie was smart enough
because he loved Jack brisco verst Story Funk Junior. But
he knew that the gimmick was going to draw the house, right, held,
try and sell the sponsor that look at the pure
pro wrestling that I'm giving you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
With Jroy Funk Junior and Jack Risco.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
But it was really that the gimmick matches with Dusty
and Sullivan, and you know, all the supporting casts was
the ones that were drawing the house right exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
So, but he never wanted to admit it publicly.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
And that's all basically, Florida was just big gimmick match.
Every night I was in a different gimmick match, you know,
whether it was a Texas death match with black Jack Mulligan,
still cage matches with Dusty bull Road matches with Dusty,
Bob wire matches with Mulligan. I mean, every night was
a gimmick match, you know. But hey, they were doing

(01:03:19):
great business. I was making a great paycheck, and like
I said, it was a paid vacation. Basically, can get
a couple of days off a week. You know, got
to go fishing and hang out at the beach, you know.
You know, heck, who else, what could you ask for?

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
Doesn't snow in Florida?

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
What could you ask for? Now?

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
I mean, I ain't gonna I'm not gonna say it's
all peaches.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Like I said, I was in the riot. I was
in Miami. Somebody from the top of the thing through
a big bottle and burst. I mean, if I'd been
stuck one step over, it would have hit me right
in the head, you know. And uh, a couple of
times in Tampa I actually got jumped on, you know,
from fans crossing the you know, jump over the yeah,
jump over the railing at me. Well, we started there

(01:04:00):
and then we started running matches at that sundom too.
Yeah wow, So uh were good, you know, going over
the sundown exactly, and then uh, we did one gimmick
where Dusty was Flair was coming in to work Dusty
for the Battle of the Rings, Lord of the Rings.
That's it exactly. And the gimmick was Dusty was gonna

(01:04:23):
show Flair that, you know, I learned the figure because
the Flair was the big Figure four man. So Dusty
was going to you know, prove to him that I
learned the figure four. I learned your hole. So I
worked Dusty on TV. You know. We had the big
brawl all through the studio, and then finally he puts
the Figure four on me, and we won't release it.
I submit, but he won't release the Figure four. He's
still cranking, cranking. Finally, wrestlers and whatever have to come

(01:04:46):
in and get him off of me. And you know,
I messed my knee up, you know, and they have
to bring a little stretcher out. They stretcher me out.
Then next week I come in with a big brace
on my knee and everything, you know. And then and so,
just because I won't be off a TV for you know,
three weeks or whatever leading up to that, they make me.
He makes me a manager. Dusty does give me a

(01:05:08):
like a floweredy looking shirt, yellow shorts, you know, and
a cigar and a Panama hat and he called me
Panama Gang, Panama Panama Gang as a manager with a
black bart right right, you know, for like three weeks,
just so I wouldn't be off of TV, right right,
I had to walk around with he king because I

(01:05:29):
was GIMPI And but then you know, they brought me
right back in. I went into The Lord of the
Rings with I worked Jerry Lawler, you know, yeah, yeah,
so that was good though.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
You know, as a kid, I always remember that The
Lord of the Rings because you know, that was a
big thing in the magazines back when I was a kid.
You know, the Dusty showing the ring on the cover
of Inside Wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Oh yeah, they had the whole coverage. And I remember
Lawlor like Yanks. Lawler was a Memphis guy.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
You know, all I would ever see him in is
in the Memphis raining and you know, whenever he would.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Go somewhere because I grew up in suburban in Philadelphia,
so at the time, you know, you know, him being
in New York just because of the David.

Speaker 3 (01:06:11):
Letterman show, like, oh, who's this Jerry Lawler. I can't
see him with Andy Kaufman. He hasn't Andy Kaufman on taxi,
you know, exactly, and that's.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
How he knew Jerry Lawler's name.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
So when Jerry Lawler went to Florida for one shot,
I'm like, this is such a big deal.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, exactly. I had the poster for years,
a big giant poster, you know, the rings and everything,
had all the guys you know and everything on it.
But you know, we had to flood and they got well,
you know, washed down the river somewhere. So so but anyway, yeah,
I was in Florida, you know, stayed there for almost

(01:06:45):
a couple of years.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Well, like I said, I started with JJ Dillon and
then once again Oliver Well first, and then after that
they put me with another guy called, uh she what
was the name? Get what his name was?

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
Jim Holiday?

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Was it Jim Holiday? Jim Holiday. Jim Holiday was my manager.
I stayed with him for a short while and then
Oliver Humperdink came in again and I went back into
the house of Humperdink. And then as time wore on,
we were in the house me Ron Bass, superstar Billy

(01:07:25):
Graham came in, but he was doing the Kung Fu
thing at this time. Uh And what would they come
up with the idea they wanted to turn me babyface,
you know, for whatever reason, you know. But you know,
so we were doing we would do interviews and all
the guys would get to talk. And when I tried

(01:07:45):
to step in, and you know, humper dingk oh, we
ain't got time, you know, we ain't got time for this.
And so I started I lose a match, you know,
and of course, you know, humperd would jump up there
and start shoving me around. You know, what are you doing,
you loser, and blah blah. So we started showing a
little friction and within the house, you know, just a
little bit at a time. And then we was in

(01:08:05):
I think Lakeland, Florida. I was working Dusty in a
in a Texas death match. Falls don't count match. Your
fans don't know what they are. You know, falls don't count.
You can have one hundred falls, but the thing is
you have to beat the ten count you got. You
have to get to your feet.

Speaker 4 (01:08:24):
So I don't know, we might have went fifty falls,
but you know, in thirty seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
But anyway, at the end of the end of the match,
men Dusty did a double head knockout boom we hit boom,
Dusty went to the floor. I took the bump into
the ring, and humber Ding, you know, is doing this
blah blah blah blah blah blah. I say, here comes
the truth. You know. They think the people in the

(01:08:52):
building think they're coming out to get Dusty, you know.
Humber Ding waves them in and then they come right
into the ring and grab me up, you know, and
Ron Bass takes his boot off and comes off the
top rope, and I get a little to get the color,
you know, and people's like, what the heck's going on,
you know, and I'm laid out. They really put the
boost to me. Dusty finally makes his way back in

(01:09:13):
the ring and fights him off, you know, and all
that and I'm laid out, you know, and he's like
he gets the people going, you know, come on, get up,
get up, right right right up, Get up, and all
the people's like doing it, you know, get up, get up.
And I work my way trying to hold the ropes,
you know, to get to my feet, and then when
I get to my feet, I just fall into his arms,
you know, you know, you know, and he's like, oh yeah,

(01:09:36):
come on in, you know, like that, so they had.

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
The cameras in the back.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
I went back to the dress room and a shave
film humperd and throwing all my gear out of the
dressing room, and all my clothes and water bottle and
everything I had was laid out in the hallway, showing
me going to the door, beating on the door. Let
me in, it's my dressing room.

Speaker 4 (01:09:56):
Let me in, you know, And you hear him on
the other side, you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Know, get away from here. No longer in the house
of humper thing, you know, and things like that. So
for like two weeks, I was like a man of
no lamb.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Country, no country.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Couldn't I wouldn't babyface, I wouldn't heal. So there in shows,
you know, it might be like Ron Bass working somebody here,
superstar Billy Graham, and just out of the just in
the middle of the match, out of the blue, here
I come stomping out of the you know, just out
of the back somewhere. You know, I'm stomping through the people.
I stepped right in and rain boom, boom boom, you

(01:10:29):
know on the hill. You know, people loved it, man,
they were like crazy, you know. So it went on
like this and finally, you know, it was gonna be
a tag team match. You know, it was gonna be
me against you know, Ron Bass, Superstar Billy Ground. But
I had no tag team partner, so you know, of
course I who am I gonna ask? You know, I
asked Dusty, you know, and he goes, you know, you

(01:10:50):
know what, that Dusty Road voice. I can't do it,
but you know, yeah, I don't know if I can
trust you. One man Gager said, I'm gonna team up
with you, but if you turn on me, it's gonna
be it's gonna be heck to pay, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
And you think that's something that's missing in today's world,
even the last.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Fifteen twenty years, is you know, there's a baby face turn,
there's a heel turn, and right away the guy that's
been a heel for a year turns baby face, and
the baby faces are all like, oh, come on in
like you would back when I was growing up, and
there was the mistrust first, you know, the baby bases
didn't know if they could trust the heels because.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
They were heels, like they were bad people. You didn't
know if they were set you up or something like that.
And I thought, once you you know, it could take
a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
It could once the babyface, you know, felt, you know,
that they could trust the heels, so did the people.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
And I thought that that's what made everything go.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
And you know, and then the occasional time where you
know it is a ruse and you know, the heel
beats up the baby face, you hated the heel even
more and you didn't want to trust the next guy.
And I thought that's what made it so And it's
easy storytelling that I think today's world, it's a he's
not over, let's turn him here instead of why isn't

(01:12:07):
there a reasons?

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
Turn them here?

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Exactly? And they just dictate what the people want.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
Yeah, basically instead of telling the people, one.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
He's a babyface, you're turning on next week, he's coming
out as a heel. Yeah, what reason? Yeah, he's accepted
by the.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
So you know, And that's a great storytelling.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
And Dusty was so good at that that if you
know you were accepted by all the bby faces right away,
it hurt you as all that kill stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
That I like it, like he actually, you know, I
had no dressing room, right he was dressing like in
the bathroom, somewhere back in the building, you know, and
he made sure that people saw that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Yeah, you know, it's an easy story for them to follow, like, man,
this guy's been a bad guy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
I wouldn't exactly. So anyway, you know, Dusty does the
big interview, the big promo about you know, if you
turn on me one man gang, it's gonna be a
heck to pay. You know, I'm the American Dream, Dusty
Rhodes and blah blah blah. So we we have the
match and Dusty's my partner, and and he does the
main selling. And then when he gives me the hot tag,
I come in. I'm blasting away on everybody pokes her

(01:13:11):
head and you know, and the people back then, you know,
the people will every punch your throat, they go yeah,
you know, you know, I'm like, wow, this is cool,
you know. So anyway, the finish of the match was
uh uh, the heill went down and Dusty run over.
I was coming in the other side and I picked
Dusty up, you know, the hills down here. I picked

(01:13:32):
Dusty up. The people's all automatically went down because they
see me hold him up in a body slam position.
They think I'm on slamming. But what I do I
drop him on the baby and gets the one two
three that way, you know. And then after that I
was pretty much sent as the baby face in that area.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
You know, how long did you last as a baby
face it before before leaving the Florida territory?

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
Probably five months or so.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
Okay, wow, so that's that's a good run.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
Yeah, I mean it was first term. Really, i'd really well,
I was a baby face in I c W for
a while, but nothing like that, right right, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
This is the first time his gang your your baby face.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
All right, there's one man gang. I was a baby face,
you know, teaming up with black Jack Mulligan or whoever.
Then you know, and then uh, you know what this
is what happened at the end of my run in
Florida was I had a deal while I was going
to Japan for a few weeks, you know, and nobody
you know had written me off of you know, saying
this is the end or anything, you know. So I

(01:14:30):
went to Japan. Well, I did a deal right before
I left with the Russians. Uh Darso was a Russian
and they had what the other dude had the white
mask on going as the saint. Uh, I forget Phonsi's brother.
I forget what Cuban assassin. So anyway, we did a

(01:14:50):
deal where you know, they jumped me in the rain
and I had the long hair and they cut my hair,
you know, and all that. So I cut a promo
about him. You know, you what are you doing? As
in my ear? If I want to have long hairs
the United States of America, you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:03):
Know you can't so blah blah blah. And then I
was leaving to go to Japan. I went to Japan.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
I come back.

Speaker 4 (01:15:08):
Michael Hayes had come in as.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
The booker right going to Charlotte, Gusty left, Michael Hayes
came in and I said.

Speaker 4 (01:15:15):
I went to Michael, I said, you know you got
when did I start back?

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
You know? And he goes, start back, Well, I don't
have a spot for you. I said, well, are you
tak I just went to Japan, you know, I was
coming right back in. Well I'm sorry, man, we ain't
got no spot for you. But you know, uh, and
he was kind of stumbling over his words. But then
right right in this is just how fate happens. You know,
he goes but he says, I know for a fact

(01:15:41):
that over in Texas, Fritz Vaughan Eric's looking for for
a hill, you know, and he called him up and
you know, set me up to go to Texas to work,
you know, w C C W. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Yeah, so I mean, and this is where you and
Gary Hart get together, Me and Gary Hart get together.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
I had read in Gary's book, which is a phenomenal thing.

Speaker 4 (01:16:00):
Nomenal I did. I read that book.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Phenomenal right, very underrated wrestling book.

Speaker 4 (01:16:05):
And I'm surprised more people hadn't read it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
I think it was you know, and you guys might
be able to know this.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
It only had one printing, so like like I ha
a PDF file of it, like I you know, I
have like the digital copy.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
That's why I got it. Yeah, And I was amazed at.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
Like growing up, you know, Gary Hart was a cool
manager that was so different than anybody else.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Play Boy Gary Hart. Were you talking about wild girl Man?
I loved him rip hawk in sweet Handsome Yes, yeah,
play boy Gary Hart.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
And he had this Chicago like I didn't even know
people in Chicago talk that way, but he had that
Chicago tulang and you know, brother, and I'd be like, man,
this guy is like he's a bad dude, like because
managers could be uh, you know, sneaky and squirrel.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
I'm like, man, but you know, you didn't know that
he was in the you know, I didn't know he
was in the the plane crash and.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
The story. Yeah, but you he told me. I was like,
he ripped all his clothes off, he swam for like
two miles. You know, he was totally nude.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Yeah, he didn't realize he was.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
His feet was all.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
Legs were broken, the ankles were broken.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
And I believed him, like.

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
This guy's a badass.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
Like oh he would talk you know, dust the roads,
you meet me, Yeah, wow, this guy's good.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
And so I read in the book that when you
guys hooked up, he had the idea for you to
get the tattoo.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
So he did have the idea, How in the heck
does he talk you into this? Well the thing, Well,
before I went over there, I still had the long
hair in Florida. So when I was you know, I thought, well,
I don't know what should I do, and saying I
just came up and said, well I just get a mohawk,
you know, just to look different. So I got the
mohawk before I went there. So I show up in Texas,

(01:17:47):
you know, with the mohawk and like, you know, I
didn't even have the vest the One Man gang and
get them vested this time. You know. He come up
with that idea, right, So I went in there and
it was just crazy with the chain and just you know,
and they put me with Gary Hart. And Gary Hard
you know, comes to me, you know, man, well I
got this idea, but I don't know if you'll go

(01:18:07):
for it. You know. I said, well, what is it,
you know, Gary, and he said, well, I take you
downtown here. We'll get two tattoos on your head and
we'll call one of them Kevin. One of them carry. Yes,
they were just small tattoos. Then I've had them a
lot of work down on them.

Speaker 4 (01:18:21):
But he goes, man, that'd be great, it'd be great
for TV, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
And I'm like, yeah, it would be great, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
And this is you know, nowadays, in twenty seventeen, everybody's
got tattoos, you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:32):
Know, tattoos everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
Exactly in the eighties, like tattoos were rare.

Speaker 3 (01:18:39):
Sailors got tattoos.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Right the second that you know, the moment I had
world class wrestling and I saw these tattoos.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
I said, oh, like, this guy's.

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
Differently And did you know that going in was that
part of the thing, like, you know what, I'll get
the tattoos because it's gonna make me look so different
in this he's going to make me more money.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
I had no idea. But you know, after he explains it,
you know what I'm saying, that's pretty good. I didn't
really realize how strong w c c W TV was.
I didn't realize the satellite and all the places he
went to, you know, and I said, well, it does
sound pretty good. So he, you know, he took me
downtown and we got the two little tattoos. Then of
course we got on TV and he started talking about

(01:19:23):
is this care? Is this Kevin blah blah blah. It's
the one man gang. You can't hurt him. He's got
the you know, the hardest head in the world. So
we started a little angle where you know that the
claw wouldn't hurt me, you know, y'all, you know, and
then we worked the deal. You know, we're challenge match
that I could you know, stand up to the claw,

(01:19:43):
you know, and and we did that whole gimmicks. You know,
had a big house for that, you know, and you know,
of course I'm doing we do the thing, and I
go down to the knee, you know. When I come
back up, you know, and he's still got the claw.
The people are going berserk. That was the that was
the move. Yeah, yeah, it's find their country, you know.

(01:20:03):
And I've destroyed everybody on TV, you know, because you know,
you just go out there and just beat people up.
You know. It was dated so alive at the time.
He just passed. Yeah, so the territory is hot, real hot,
real hot. And then you know, we're doing that. And
then finally I started, I'm starting, I finally go down
and soon as soon as that knee it's like I'm
going down, here comes Gary Boom, you know, breaks it up.

(01:20:29):
How bad did the tattoos hurt? It was that those
wasn't too bad because it was small, they weren't that big.
But as years later, when I got all this other
stuff added to it, that hurt like a son of
a gun, right, like that part of the body exactly
a lot of blood, man, like I was in a
match or something.

Speaker 4 (01:20:49):
But then then Gary came up with the vest.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
You know Chicago. He you know, I've always been announced
from Chicago. He came up with the Halsted Street thing,
and that's you.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Know, wrestling fans today.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
You know, it's thirty years wrestling fans and wrestlers whenever
we're in Chicago, here you go my Hall Street and
you don't realize Hallsted Street is miles upon miles, but.

Speaker 3 (01:21:12):
We always go baddest street in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
Yeah, that's a cool thing.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
Like how many people in wrestling and wrestling history have
a street that they have made as part of their
persona exactly, but that you have a preconceived notion.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
But this could be Beverly Hills for all we know.
But because of you and Gary Hart, Hallsted Street in
Chicago is that's the baddest street in Chicago. And it's
once again the power of pro wrestling, that imagination.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
That he did that. And then he did the denim vest.
You know, he come up with the idea but you know,
wear the denim vest and put Chicago across the bag
Hallsted straight at the bottom. You know, he did that right,
come up with the idea of change in my outfit.
I used to wear the single you know where you know,
like this they came up with the idea to come
out with the arms and put skulls and all that.

(01:22:06):
All that was his ideas well know, did he with
the splash?

Speaker 3 (01:22:10):
Did he name him for seven forty seven or was that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
You know, that was already that was that was already
that was already established seven forty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
You know that's crazy too, because you know, you know,
the seven forty seven was the biggest plane at the
time exactly now it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
Was a huge seven seventy sevens.

Speaker 1 (01:22:24):
But you know, you know, I still get people's you know, man,
you give him seven forty won't say splash as a
seven forty seven.

Speaker 3 (01:22:32):
Yeah, And you know that's the thing. You see so
many moves today.

Speaker 5 (01:22:36):
It's oh, it's this move, this move, but you know,
rare thing a splash, you know, rarely it's the same move,
but it's so identified by you, like I ought to
splash the al when Gang does it, it's a seven
forty seven.

Speaker 4 (01:22:49):
And yeah, the impact and that's insane, isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
It's it's so cool and you do the fuse and
then you end up with hackbar, right.

Speaker 4 (01:22:59):
Yeah, Well we always had acbar every time I went
to mid soul.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
I was with Actbar, right, right, you were you with
him a little bit in Texas too, or right, that's right,
that's right. Me and Gary was. You know, we was
against them guys, you know, and then the free Birds
came back in for a couple of the big shows,
you know, so we were against them guys too.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
You know. That was the cool thing. That was the
unique booking of And I'm a big believer in this.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Not every heel should like every heel because at the
end of the day, we're bad people.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
Why, you know, he's a bad person, Like I believe
a heel believes.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
That he's a babyface in his mind, So why why
would he trust the other heels? And I'd love to
see that, you know, you know, just Gary Hart didn't
always have to get along with Acbar and the free
Birds hated the von Erics, but hey man, they're gonna
get cheered against Devastation Incorporated exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
You know, you know, I hate the free Birds, but
I liked him.

Speaker 2 (01:23:56):
If there wrestling Devastation Incorporated, that's crazy, it is it is. Yeah,
you could you can go back to as long as
you're not with their.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
Yeah, So I love Texas was my style, you know,
because it was wide open. I could do anything I
wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
I could go out to the floor, use a chair,
I could use tables, throw a table in the ring.
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:24:19):
That's what they wanted me to do, you know, And
that was my style.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
I love doing that. And I guess that's why people
took to me so good in Texas because I came
in there and a lot of guys would come in
and work against the van ericson. If you didn't fight
back against these guys, they gonna eat you up, especially
Kevin right. It was real, real bad, you know. But
with me, like if Kevin would do something to me,
a drop kick or whatever, I'd be right back. I

(01:24:44):
pound and boom, you know. So same with carry you know,
Carried hit me, I'd hit him right back. I wouldn't,
I'd sell it, but.

Speaker 4 (01:24:50):
I'm coming right back with my own big blow on him,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:52):
And and it meant so much when you eventually get
the heat where you're gonna have a little bit where
you just Carrot's in trouble.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
I tell people, I say, you know, I mean, you know,
I can't compare it to hunk Hogan receptions. But for Texas,
I mean, it was like they were the Elvis Presley's
or Hulk Hogan. When they come out of the dressing
rooms to go to the ring, people just mobbed them,
you know. They were all over them, grabbing at them
and pulling their hair, grabbing there like a rock star

(01:25:21):
or something. It was crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
Now did you know at the time too, that man,
these guys are so over there, so this, but they're
very flawed in their personal lives.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Like oh yeah, yeah, I knew that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
And that's the thing that you guys covered it up
so well because.

Speaker 1 (01:25:38):
You know Fritz, you know, Fritz ask us to okay, yea,
the territory. I went down to the sportatorium. I had
never met Fritz von Eric in my life.

Speaker 4 (01:25:49):
I knew the name.

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Here's a guy standing back there, and he's got like
a single jumpsuit looking thing like a mechanic would wear something,
you know, blue jumpsuit looking thing, and he's walking.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
Around and he comes over to me with that real
rough Uh Fritz Varner.

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
You know, I'm Fritz Varner. It is nice to me,
you know, And I said, whoa man. I didn't know
this was Fritz. I thought he was like genter or something. Well,
then he took me, Yeah, he took me in the office.
You know, he goes, I hear you coming in to
work my boys.

Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
Uh, yes, sir, I'm you know, I'm coming in to
work you boys.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
He goes, Well, let me tell you right now, I
want you to take care of my boys. You take
care of my boys. I'll take care of you. You know,
I don't worry. I'm gonna take care of me. And
then we never never had no problems after that, you know,
and my paychecks were great, you know, you know, yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (01:26:41):
He knew that, like you know, is over as Kevin
and carry Worth at they needed you, guys, they needed glove.

Speaker 4 (01:26:51):
You know, you had to protect them. You know, you
still had to protect.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
Them, right because you know, at any point you could
eat them up and eat them up and then you
killed exactly, but you knew the exact time to sell
for them and keep yourselves over and keep the territory up.
And once again, that's at the ill start, you know,
listening to the people waiting for that comeback right back
in the day. People don't realize wrestling fans and it's

(01:27:16):
a lot of wrestlers too don't realize that the different
locker rooms where you know, the heel wasn't just out
there to get the heat and be the bad guy,
but he was also there to lead the match.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
And always the Hills always leading the match, you know,
I mean from years ago to you know, I don't
know now because I don't work anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
But for years, the Hill was the leader. They're the
ones that were calling the spots.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
You know, we were the one. The Hill was always
the one. If it was in a tag team match,
you know, the heel was the one to say, okay,
make the tag. Yeah. The Hill was the one who says, okay,
you sail, keep selling, keep selling, keep selling. Okay, give
me a punch, come on, now, give me another one,
give me another one. And then if you finally get
into the full comeback, you know, and then and then
about ways into the comeback, okay, I'm gonna cut you off. Boom,

(01:28:02):
go to the eyes, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
And it was great because I think, you know, young
guys don't realize, like man, and that was done so
one you could listen to the crowd, but to the
attention of the fans. Are gonna be on the face
of the baby face and the actions of the baby
face to where the sympathy happens. But the second they say,

(01:28:24):
cut me off, you know, a Santa Claus isn't real,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:28:29):
You know, you're you're calling the stuff and you're creating
the match. So everybody's attention is on.

Speaker 1 (01:28:34):
Them exactly exactly they're basically I mean, they would, honestly,
you know, the von axwell, honestly have girls in the
crowd crying. You know, we'd be putting the punishing them
so bad, you know, beating them up, and that they
were selling. Now they wouldn't you know, they'd go down
and sell like a son of a gun, you know,
and then girls would start crying. But then finally when
it was time for that comeback and they started that

(01:28:56):
slow come back and they wound it up and really
got going. Man, I whole like exploding, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:29:03):
So now after Texas you go back to Mid South.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:29:08):
Well, the whole time I was in Texas, I was
I was still working Mid South.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
Okay, So I was going to Mid South, working in
out for Bill Ye. I was going to Saint Louis,
working in and out of Saint Louis and to kill Yeah. Yeah,
I was going there, but just because of that TV,
you know, and then I still had still making tours
in Japan. I'd make a couple of weeks here and

(01:29:32):
there in between, and of course Bruiser Brody was in Texas,
you know, and we had a big feud. That was
another great time in my life. Getting to work against
Bruiser Brody because I got to team up with him
in Japan, but you know, they're actually working against him
was a totally different thing, you know. Now, it was.

Speaker 2 (01:29:48):
Schedule like that, you are on the road constantly, and
you had said you've been with your wife for over thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:29:54):
Years, right right?

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
Wait, how you know, you know, how is it for her?
Mean that you're always away and you're always doing this
and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
It is it hard, you know, you always you always
hear guys, you know, the divorce rate and wrestling so
high any entertainment, but with wrestling it's so high because
we're you know, we're on the road, you know, and
a not a non wrestling fan or if your wife
doesn't understand the thing, it could create so many.

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
My wife understood wrestling, you know, she she knew what
it was, she knew what I was doing and she
understood that. You know. Was she a fan growing up too?
She was a big fan girl when I met her.
When I met her in Mid South Championship Wrestling, she
was the selling the little programs and things already, you know, excellent.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
So you had that common bond, but a bond already.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
Yeah, once we were once we got together, and you know,
she's just you know, she was always with me for
all these years and yeah, stuck with me.

Speaker 4 (01:30:56):
You know that I could be gone month, two months, whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
You know, right, you always knew your wife.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
And that's great that she understood because you know, and.

Speaker 1 (01:31:04):
Another thing was you know, I told her, you know,
I'm not I'm not out of here on the road
looking for anything. I'm out here wrestling because that's that's
what I love to do. You know, people go, well, man,
how'd you survive without taking anything? You know what I'm saying,
because wrestling was.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
My high Yeah, yeah, you know, way did you enjoy
the moment?

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
I lived? Every night? You know, people go your what
was your favorite time or what was it? I say
every night was my favorite night, because I mean that's
what I lived for, you know, to me, even years
and years go by, you know, for me to walk
out to that ring and get booed, spit on or whatever.
I relished that moment, you know, I lived for you know.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
It's funny like if you write this down on a
piece of paper and say, yeah, I love being booed.
I love this driving twenty five hundred miles a week,
wrestling eight out our eight days, our eight matches a
week on a ring that is very hard, and this,
and you know, and then you know, getting you know,
busted open and this and bumps and peruises and then

(01:32:04):
at the end, you you know, wright plus equals greatest
job ever, like a non wrestling person would go or
you had seen like you know, and it is it's
so insane, but you know, and you said it like
it's such it's the greatest drug ever.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
It's the greatest ever. You know. But the thing was,
I mean that's what you you know, from time I
was a youngster, just like you, that's what I wanted
to do. You know, I didn't want to destroy it
by taking you know, drugs or drinking. I never drank.
I never did any kind of drugs. You know, I
never did anything. My drug was going to that ring

(01:32:40):
and getting those people to hate me and spit on me,
and man, it was the greatest feeling in the world
when I could get up and have a face full
of blood and then baby face me busting me into
the crowd and be cheering and going crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:32:52):
You know, that's the greatest thing in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
And it's funny even being a heel and you get
that boo and then when that baby face gets that
huge tear back, it's almost yours cheer too, because.

Speaker 3 (01:33:02):
It did such a good job and they believe in
and it's it's great. Now what do you get?

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
You know, And we're gonna wrap up here in a
little bit. We could we could talk, you know, we
didn't even get.

Speaker 3 (01:33:12):
To New York.

Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
The greatest moment of your carew do you do?

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
You have one point where you said, man, this is
the greatest night of my career.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
You knows as a hard one there, brother, I mean,
the greatest night of my career. But uh, you know,
it's like I just told you, man, every night was
the greatest night. But the biggest I know, I said
one big thrills main event in Spartan, my second biggest thrill.
When I was a youngster before I even, you know,
had any idea what the future hell for me. I

(01:33:45):
would tell people one day, I'm gonna be the main
event in the Madison Square Garden, you know, and sure enough,
you know, years later, I got the main event Madison
Square Garden against HAULK Hogan. You know. So that's that's
always a big you know from me, a big moment
to say, man, I was a headline in Madison Square Garden.
I mean the mecca like that. Always say the Mecca

(01:34:08):
right there, you know. I mean, how many people in
their life can say, you know, I was the main event,
not just the opening match.

Speaker 3 (01:34:16):
I was an opening match once in Madison Square Garden.
And I brag about it for the last nineteen year
year exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
I mean I actually got the main event and Madison
twenty three thousand people and of course they're to see
Hawk Hogan.

Speaker 3 (01:34:29):
Yeah yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
As the Hill, you know, they believed that I was
gonna beat him, so they bought tickets to see if
that could happen, you know, which of course it didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:34:40):
But yeah, do you have a favorite opponent, You have
somebody that you had so much great chemistry with?

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
Oh yeah, there's a bunch of them. Guy. Well, I
told you, Bruiser Bros. Bro We clicked like a son
of a gun, Hacksaw, Jim Duggan, Mid South. We were
just like perfect together. Really. I had good ma at Hogan,
you know, I had a good time with Hogan. But
to be honest, you know, them was my favorite guys.
But it didn't matter if I went out, It didn't

(01:35:08):
matter who I went out with. You know. I wanted
to have a great match with him, you know, even
though I'm a you know, a big guy, you know,
huge guy, just supposedly according to the DVD, a true
giant on the WWE DVD, right, But you know, I
didn't want to work like a giant. I couldn't stand
it when you go into a territory and they say,
we don't want you to take you no bumps because

(01:35:30):
they're trying to get you set.

Speaker 4 (01:35:31):
Up, you know, we want you to keep them tights clean,
don't go down.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
I hated that, you know, so no matter who I
was working in Florida, had some strap matches with a
little guy called Joe Lightfoot, you know, yeah, and we
had strap matches, you know, and he was just a
little b dude, you know, But I loved it, you
know when that strap and you know, I was bumping
all over the place with this dude. You know, that's

(01:35:55):
what I love to do. I love to go out
there and then just bump around and make guys, you know,
make them look good. And that's what I enjoyed doing.
You know. I enjoyed that every night. You know, I
enjoyed the blood every night. You know, bust me open.
I love that. I love it when I come up
with a face full of blood, you know, and be
spitting blood out in my mouth and big bubbles blowing
out my nose. You get that camera in on me,

(01:36:17):
take a picture of me. That's what I want, you know.
I love all that. I love the blood just rolling
down my arm, you know whatever. You know, it's crazy
to say that, yeah, because you know, but it was
just like you, like you said, it's such a thrill
when you go back to that dress room and the guys.
Man's that was great, man, that was great.

Speaker 2 (01:36:36):
You know, do you have any regrets in wrestling that
hey I did not like I should have went this
way or should have went that way, or it's something.

Speaker 3 (01:36:44):
That you wanted to do but you didn't get to do.

Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
No, I don't have regrets that way, but I do
have regrets. One regret was I was in w c
W Dusty Roads. It brought me in and and I
was working with this guy, rapper dude called p N news.
Big guy's a rapper gimmick. So we were working and

(01:37:07):
we were doing it was they called him splash matches.
He went, the way you went the match. You had
to do splash to get the pen right. It's the
only way you can get a pinfall. So we were
in town and you know, they came to the dress room.
Mike Graham was the agent, come to the dress room
and said, oh, gang, we're gonna put PN news over.
You know, and my ego, you know, we all have,

(01:37:29):
he goes. You know, I try to keep mine intact,
but right you know, I'm like, he's putting PN news over.
I mean, I'm I've done you know, all this in
my career. You know it was ping news. You know,
what's he doing in his life. I'm not saying that,
but in my brain, you know saying that, you know.
And I told Mike, I said, well, I'm not doing that, man,
I'm not gonna He said, well, that's what Dusty sent over,

(01:37:49):
you know, ask to finish, you know, and I said,
I'm not gonna do it. So I refused to do
the finish, and he said, well, you know, I gotta
call Dusty, you know. So sure enough he called Dusty
and as soon as you know, everything was at the
end of the show, he said, you know you need
you as soon as you get to your room, called Dusty.

Speaker 4 (01:38:07):
So I called Dusty, and Dusty, you know, like, hey,
one man, gang, what's.

Speaker 1 (01:38:11):
The problem brother? And I just told him, you know,
I did, I wasn't going to do the job for
PN news, you know, right in the middle that way.
And he goes, well, you know I can't have that,
you know, his business, and I can't let you get
away with that. So you know, I'm gonna have to
send you on home. You know, You're going home and
take a take a few days off and give us
some thoughts, you know. I said, okay, okay, So you know,

(01:38:33):
I went off the tour and went home and he
called me home about a week later, you know, and
he says, you ready come back?

Speaker 4 (01:38:40):
I said, uh, hell yeah. And he said, well, for
you to come back, I want you to come.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
To TBS and put PN News over in the middle
of the ring, you know, on TV, you know. And
I said, Dusty, man, I can't do that. He said, well,
that's the deal. If you do that, everything's back to normal.
You know, everything's back to normal. I said, Dusty, I'm sorry, man,
I can't do that, you know. And he goes, you know,
I took I've always taken care of you. You know,

(01:39:05):
I'll give you a job trying to take care of
your family and everything, and this is the way you
want to be. And I said, man, I apologize, but
this is the way it's got to be. You know,
I just can't do it. In my brain, I'm thinking,
you know, who's to say I go down there and
put the dude over and they just say, oh, you
know right then, I'm not saying I believe Dusty would
have been a man of his word, but you know,
at that particular time my life, I'm not thinking that.

(01:39:27):
I'm thinking, you know, I might put this dude over.
And they say, Okay, get on about your business, right
skepticism of you know, skepticism you know, so you know,
and he said, okay, that's the way he wanted, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:39:38):
You know, I said, I'm sorry, man. We just hung up,
you know, and that was it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:42):
You know. I regret that I should have just went
on you know, I look back now, you know, Hindsights
twenty twenty. I should have went on to the TV,
did the job, whether they used me or not, you know,
and just did it, you know, just just being professional,
you know. But the ego got in the way.

Speaker 3 (01:40:00):
All these years later, people probably wouldn't have never remembered that.

Speaker 1 (01:40:06):
But he fizzled out right exactly exactly. And my other
regret was just just the way I left WWF. Just uh.
I'd been up there four years constantly on tour and
it's just flying everywhere. It's you know, city to see
like a rock show, you know, you know exactly what
it's like. And so I come off a tour. I

(01:40:29):
went home, and I was scheduled to go back to
somewhere might not in North Dakota or somewhere like three
days later, you know, and I just told my wife,
is I can't take this no more? You know. My
son was like five years old, you know, And I
get on a tour and call home and my son
and get on the phone, and you know, he's like
daddy when he coming home. How you telling them what,
I'm not coming here five weeks? You know, kid don't

(01:40:50):
understand time. So basically all he saw me was what
he saw on TV, you know, and I'd come home
and watched the videos of him doing his little kindergarten
stuff and all that never there personally, you know. So
when I got home off of this tour, you know,
I told my wife, I said I can't take this
no more. You know, I would literally, you know, I
would feel so bad at a hotel, I'd start crying.

(01:41:11):
You know, I was just that homesick. You know, we
never got to see you know, you get home for
three days, just do laundry and go right back out again.
You know, he never was with your family. So you know,
she said, well you do whatever he thinks best. You know,
whatever you whatever your decision is, that's what it is.
I said, Okay, I'm not going back out. So when
it comes time with me leave, I didn't. I didn't

(01:41:33):
make the flight. I stayed home, and sure enough, later on,
you know, they call me, you know, Pat Patterson gives
me the telephone calls.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
Is a.

Speaker 1 (01:41:43):
Gang? What was the deal? Man? You're supposed to be,
you know, wherever I'm supposed to be at. And I said,
you know, I just can't take it no more. Man,
I just don't want to go back out no more.
And then he goes, well, you know, events would like
to speak to you. I said, ole kid to you,
would you talk Advince went man? And I said, well,
of course I will talk to you know. So Vince

(01:42:04):
gets on telephone. Vince, never call me by a gimmick name,
as always George. He always used a personal name, you know, George,
what's the problem, you know? And I said, Vince, you know,
we we had talks before, and now you know we've
had our meetings.

Speaker 4 (01:42:17):
And I told you how my checks were getting really bad.

Speaker 1 (01:42:21):
You know. It's basically where I was paying out of
my my own funds to keep on a tour. You know,
the checks got that bad at one time, you know.
And I'm not saying all of them.

Speaker 4 (01:42:31):
I mean I had great checks too, you know, toward
the end, you know, when I was doing IQN.

Speaker 1 (01:42:37):
And uh, he goes, well, George, you know I just
told him, I you know, I just don't want to
go back out on tours. And he says, well, what
about just give you a couple of weeks off, George,
and you come back in and blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (01:42:48):
And you know, he's business, you know. I said, no,
Vince is I just.

Speaker 1 (01:42:52):
Can't take it. I can't take the tour anymore. I
can't take the travel, you know. And he goes, well,
George is a bad business. You know, this is bad business.
And we got Survivor series coming up. We've already done
the promos, we've cut the advertisements far, you know. And
you know, I would, you know, I want you to
come back and at least do Survivor series for me,
you know. And I said, I'm sorry, Evince, I just

(01:43:12):
can't come back out. I can't do it. I need
to stay home with my family, you know. He goes, well, George,
if that's the way you know, you want to be,
if that's what you want to do, it's bad business, though,
you know. And I said, I apologize, you know, but
that's the way it's going to be. And then we
just hung up.

Speaker 2 (01:43:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:43:26):
About two weeks later, Pat Patterson calls me and says,
talks to me and go Georgia. They got a tour
going to Japan. WWF tour going to Japan. And Vince
would like to know if you would like if he
could get you to go as I ken, you know,
he said, you know, we'll pay you ten thousand dollars
to go.

Speaker 4 (01:43:47):
I told Pat. I said, no, Pat, I just.

Speaker 1 (01:43:49):
You know, I left the company because I didn't want
to travel anymore, you know, And I said ten thous
I just don't you know who wouldn't you know, It's
just foolish now that I think about it didn't take
ten thousand dollars just to go on a two or
three day little tour.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
Yeah, you know, but that's the mindset because you've been
on the road for so long to get to and
I like I called the cats and Cradle moment to
where you know, you missed your family so much that
that's all you think about.

Speaker 1 (01:44:15):
That constant.

Speaker 3 (01:44:16):
They could have thrown a hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
Thousand dollars too, and it was it's not the monetary,
it's man, I have to be here because you know,
every moment matters.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
And yeah, that's that's that's constant on my mind on
the road, you know. Yeah, me and Slick. Me and
Slick always traveled together, same likes. You know, we didn't
do anything, you know, no womanizing, no drinking, no smoking anything.
So we hooked up right and constantly was talking about that,
you know, our families and stuff. But anyway, back to

(01:44:47):
the other part. You know, Pat was telling you know,
was on there. You go to Georgia. You know, this
is your chance. You know, Vince really want you back
in the company. You know, come back in as I came,
and this is your chance. He's going to give you
this one chance. If you take the tour, he'll take
you back in the company and everything will be forgotten.
You go right back to normal. And I said, Pat,

(01:45:08):
I'm just now, I'm sorry, I'm just not interested. He goes, Okay, George,
I'll tell you this is gonna be your last chance.
I said, I'm just not interested. Pat.

Speaker 4 (01:45:15):
I apologize, you know, and he says, okay, George.

Speaker 1 (01:45:18):
That's it. Then he the phone and that was the
end of my career in WWF. Never called me back
again until the Gimmick Battle Royal in Houston, Texas. You know,
they brought me in, but they wanted me to come
in as I came, the African Dream. But I'd lost
so much weight at that particular time, you know, I'd
trimmed down to like three hundred pounds. The outfit was

(01:45:39):
measured for somebody was four or fifty, and so of
course it wouldn't fit, you know. So Howard Finker was like, well,
I'll check with Vince and see if he'll bring in
this one man gang. I can't guarantee it, you know.
I just come off of a USO tour. I'd been
on a USO tour all over the Islands and everywhere else,
you know, for about a month. And then Howard Finkel,

(01:46:02):
you know, oh, it's okay, He'll bring in this one
man gang, you know. And that was the last time
I said, I talked to him. I and uh, I
called him in the back, and you know, I apologized
to him about the way I left his company, you know,
you know, shook his hands. I truly apologized to you
about it, as it was bad business. I should never
have done it, you know, not that he cares, probably,

(01:46:23):
you know, it made me feel good. Yeah, yeah, that
was the last time I spoke to the man. You know.
But I still was getting my royal all these years
they've paid me my royalties and done the little DVD's.
I always got my little royalties from any DVD I
appeared in. You know, I don't get nothing for the network.
I don't think so anyway, you know. And just just

(01:46:45):
because that one character, I got these signings and things
now and people come up, it don't matter what color,
they will come up and go, man, that I Kem
was the greatest. I love that character. You know, even
even African Americans to come to me, you know, had
I Kem was the best.

Speaker 4 (01:47:00):
You know, they're not offended. They wasn't offended at.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
All by it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:03):
And I remember being a kid watching it and I
don't think you know, me and I hit my five
friends that watch wrestling every weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:47:11):
No one, no one ever thought of it as a
offensive character.

Speaker 3 (01:47:15):
He was just like the gang having fun to enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:18):
It was fun, and it was it was something different,
was exactly. It was the greatest effort. And then what
I got time tell you that story. Okay, this is
alquem Uh. We're we're catering. It's some TV in New York,
you know, and I'm I'm setting their stuff in my face,
you know, which I was great at. So I'm sitting

(01:47:39):
in there and and they called me over, you know
for a little pow wow. In the corner, you know,
and Slick and and Vince and everybody's over there, and
they bring me over there and goes, uh, well, first
Vince walks by earlier and goes George and sir, you
you do you know how to dance? And I said, no,
I don't know how to dance, and go well, maybe
Slick can teach you some moves. I didn't know what

(01:48:00):
I didn't know. Yeah, I hadn't been clued in yet,
you know. So later in the day they take me
off in the corner, you know, Slicks there and everybody
in Vinces and whatever, and they go, we got this
Grays Events, We got this great idea. We're gonna take
the one man gang and we're gonna turn him into
a black man, and we're gonna call you ikem. He says,

(01:48:21):
we got the whole outfit, you know, drawn up and everything.
We're gonna put a dice sheiky on you in and
put the goofy you know. He didn't say goofy, but
the hat. And you know, we want you to dance
and we want you to do all you know like
that and come up with an interview style and whatever.
And I thought it was a joke. Honestly thought it
was a joke. You know. I was like, man, I
was like, what you gotta be kidding me. I'm serious now,

(01:48:44):
I'm serious, you know. And he said I was where
it still had the mohawk, and one damn gang, he goes,
I don't want you shaving your head anymore. We want
the hair to go back out. You know. Then I
knew it was real. You know, he said, we're gonna
send you home for like four weeks, you know, to
get my hair out. Had they had to, you know,
get the outfit made and all that. And then in
between that they brought me back and we did the

(01:49:06):
little video and Vinuyette out in the back alley somewhere
up there where I Kem is introduced, you know, with
all the dancers. It was great once I finally saw it,
you know, I hadn't seen it, you know, for years,
and when I saw it on YouTube, I was like, man,
that's a really good that's a good video. And then,
you know, the first night they brought me out as

(01:49:26):
I Kem, you know, well, Vincent already told me, you know,
he said, well, uh, well I got a space for Ikem.

Speaker 4 (01:49:34):
I don't have a space for one man gang anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:49:37):
So it was a pretty much he was all in
on that, you know, because it's his creation, you know,
and he goes well before I was actually went out
my first time on TV.

Speaker 4 (01:49:48):
You know, he says, just have fun with it, just
enjoy yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:49:51):
You know. I was nervous as heck. You know, I'm
back there throwing up in the back, you know, because
this is on the life. It's don't work now. I
don't have a job, and you know, we got to
pay the power bill. So you know, they cranked the jib,
so bro up and nobody tells me. You know Slick,
you know, he's always you know, he's got easy. Nobody
tells me what to do, you know. So I'm thinking, man,

(01:50:12):
what can I I gotta do something. So so we
walk out, you know, just just out of just whatever reason.
I started throwing my arms around. You know, I said, well,
I'll just do something stupid, just throw my arms around.
And that's how the Yakeen Dance came to be. You know.
I walked to the ring and I was, you know,
the camera was pointing on me, and I was, you know,
lip syncing the song as they was singing I walked

(01:50:35):
in and did did a little dance around and you know,
this is a real short two minute match or whatever,
and did the little rakeen pose and all that. And
then when I came back through the curtains, you know,
I got a stand ovation. That's crazy. So I keen
went on from there and then, uh, what was fun
about Ikem? You know, just the character in the ring,

(01:50:55):
but they were actually kind of using me as a
baby face behind the scenes. I got to go to
the different events, you know, special events. You know, I
got to accept the award for video selling the most videos.
I got to go to Vegas and do that for
you know, we we me and the Big boss Man
went to the special event in New York for you know,
for some children's charity thing with a bunch of celebrities,

(01:51:18):
you know. So you know, as I came, it was
letting me do that one man game could never do.

Speaker 3 (01:51:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:51:25):
You were a likable heel to the public. Yeah, yes,
outside in the rain, your your heel, but like outside.

Speaker 1 (01:51:32):
Like oh we could like this guy right right, And
that's that was another thing. You know, when they switched
boss Man the babyface, you know, me and Slick said, man,
they should have went the other way. They should have
switched me and you and marketed us. You know, I came, man,
what we talking selling little hats and things? You know,
he could have made a fortune off of that stuff.
And for whatever reason, they went with boss Man and

(01:51:54):
you know, made him the baby face and kept me
in slick his heels, and you know, it just went
on and happened. I have my little boss Man. It's
my tag team partner. Now. You know, it's supposed that
we turned on him but didn't get no run with him. No,
we didn't get no run at the wrestle Maney he
beat me like in two minutes, you know, with a
sidewalk slam, you know, so Dbiosti got to run run

(01:52:18):
with him because Debioste came in and interfered, and then
they took off and had the big run.

Speaker 3 (01:52:24):
I ain't always that you guys went short because the
show is running long?

Speaker 1 (01:52:29):
Was that true? That's what they told us. Show was
running along, So they said, you know, it's only gonna
be about two minutes. He beat you with the sidewalk slam. Yeah,
that's what I was told too, is the show was
running along, you know, But you know it's okay. I
went ahead and did it with no problem, you know.
You know, I just did what I had to do,
you know, and then moved on from there.

Speaker 3 (01:52:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:52:50):
That's the way it was. But here's the big rib
with IKEM. You know. Uh, the ike music would play
in Jive, so bro and it would start up and
me and Slick would go and I'd be doing dance
and then they would tell the agents. You know, the
agents came to me and they said, whatever you do.
Vince said, don't stop dancing till the music stops, you know.

(01:53:12):
So we go going. So we go out to the ring.
You know, the baby face ain't out there yet. We're
going out first. So man, that music's playing and playing
and playing, and I'm dancing. I'm dancing, and I'm telling
Slick man, I said, I'm blowing up out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:53:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:53:28):
They don't, they won't. It goes for like five minutes.
They keep it's on loop, you.

Speaker 3 (01:53:31):
Know, and they're thinking that the fans are just gonna
start eating at a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:53:36):
And the thing was, it was a big rib with
the agents. The agents, you know, like Tony Garria, whoever
it was, would be in the walkway, laughing their butts off,
you know, because they knew they can see me blowing up,
you know, because they had told me specifically, you know,
Vince said, don't stop dancing till the music stops. So
I had to continuously do that goofy walking on. It's crazy,

(01:53:57):
you know, five straight minutes. Yes, every night they would
play this rib on me. It was laughing their butts
off in the back about it, like come on man.
And then what you know, as time went on, I
was like the basically the the everything man. If somebody

(01:54:17):
got you know, like somebody would get in a bar
fight and got hurt, I think one of the guys
got hurt. I would have to go take their spot.
They would pull me off of one tour I was
about to end up off a tour. Put me on
that tour and I had to keep going. Big boss
Man got hurt, you know, so they would take me
off of that tour and send me to word. The
big boss Man was I take that tour guy. I

(01:54:38):
was the go to guy. And that was another reason
I couldn't get any time off. It was just constance.
You know, every time somebody got hurt, they come to me.
You know, they called me up at the hotel. You know, George,
we need you to go to you know, instead of
going here, we're gonna send you tickets to go to wherever,
you know, and I'd have to go to that tour.
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:54:57):
It's stressfully use you have call home and say yes,
stress phone, but they're sending me here.

Speaker 1 (01:55:02):
And and we we had to make our own reservations,
you know, we didn't have a Now nowadays, you know,
they'll get your hotel rooms and all kind of stuff.
Back then, we had to do it all ourselves. You know,
no Internet, there's no there's all telephone stuff. You know,
make your car reservation, make a hotel reservation. You have
a stack of tickets, you know, that thick you know,
for for a three or four week tour, you know,

(01:55:25):
and as soon as you get you're trying to get
on that telephone making him reservations. If you don't get
a car reservation, they're gone, man, right, No cell phones,
cell phones, no cell phones at all.

Speaker 3 (01:55:35):
Yeah, travel is so much easier to you know GPS.
You had the ram McNally that you had to keep
with nally.

Speaker 1 (01:55:43):
Now I still have a ram McNally. I sure do
it's it's a slick. We're still talking on telephone, you know,
we'll talk everybody. Ever a couple of three months, he'll
call me and you know, he he's like, why don't
you ever call me? And I said, well, because I
know you're gonna call me, why should I. But I'll
get down there and I'll go slick. You know, when
I first went to WWF, you know, I didn't even

(01:56:05):
know who you were, you know, I said, man, I
was hoping it was gonna put me with Bobby.

Speaker 4 (01:56:09):
Heenan or Jimmy Harden.

Speaker 1 (01:56:10):
I would have been with them guys. I would have
been a champion, but they put me with you, and
you ruined my career. You know, He's like, yo, what
are you talking about. I was the best thing up there.

Speaker 3 (01:56:20):
That's great, that's great.

Speaker 1 (01:56:22):
So anyway, you know, we had like you know, it
was hard up there, but yeah, we had a lot
of fun too.

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
Anything back now, it's like, man, that was such a
fun time.

Speaker 1 (01:56:29):
But yeah, I mean, I mean I got to go
to places I never would have went with them guys
who went to Italy and you know, different places like that,
you know, so I got to do a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (01:56:39):
I would never have got to do in my career,
you know, being on TV shows and things like that.

Speaker 3 (01:56:43):
You know, what was your favorite city.

Speaker 1 (01:56:46):
My favorite city? You know. I'm a I'm a Southern
guy man. I liked anywhere in the South. I couldn't
stand the East Coast. I just cannot, I do. I
do not like the East Coast. Nothing personal. People, you know,
too fast for me. I was always a Southern I
was raised in the South. Is just way too fast,
like anywhere in the South, you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:05):
Know, until I moved to North Carolina, I didn't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:57:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:57:09):
Then there's now there's no place I want to rather be.

Speaker 2 (01:57:12):
Like if I go to New York or Philadelphia, even
to Toronto or Tokyo, I am just anxiety because it's
so fast and everybody's moving.

Speaker 3 (01:57:21):
I'm like I am, you know, I have my my.

Speaker 2 (01:57:25):
My set thing in North Carolina, and I am relaxed exactly.
And I don't think people get it unless you're from
the South or you live in the South.

Speaker 1 (01:57:33):
No, no, not at all. But for you know, when
we'd go to the East Coast, I would drive in
the South. Then when we would tour the East Coast,
I'd make slick drive. I just tell them, man, I
can't drive in this stuff. Man, I'm just lost, constantly lost.
I'm like, you miss one exit. You you got to
travel thirty miles to get another exit, and people drive crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:57:51):
I go to New York City Friday, and I'm you know,
it's it's sixties a way, and the anxiety is like, no,
not even driving.

Speaker 3 (01:57:58):
I'm taking the flight into the train into the city.
I'm like, oh my good, this.

Speaker 1 (01:58:03):
Is too much. I can't stand. Like I hate a
New York I'm not saying I hate the city. I'm
not saying I don't. Yeah, yeah, I don't want to
get hate mail on my face, but I'm just saying,
you know, my first time into New York City, I
am from the South. My first time in the New
York City. We come out of that tunnel thing there,
and you know, we stopped at the red light and
some dude runs up and starts washing our windshield. I'm like,

(01:58:25):
what the heck is this? We suppose what do you do?
You give him money, lock the doors, do something. I
don't know what this dude's doing, you know, and you
drive on down the highway. You see somebody picking stuff
out of the garbage. Can you know, I never seen
that before in the South, you know, people sleeping out
there and all I'm like, then we finally we had
we parked the car and by the some hotel that's there.

(01:58:46):
We parked the car in the area. Then we take
a taxi to go into the building, you know, the
massive square garden. There's a big ramp you go up
into it, and we got a we men slick was
my first time there. We went into the ramp and
and man, it was like two hundred people. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:59:01):
They surrounded the taxi and started shaking it, you.

Speaker 1 (01:59:04):
Know, like rocking it. That taxi driver, you know, I
don't know what he was saying, but he was like crazy.
He was holding his arm from him to get that
door open, you know, and they were like shaking the taxi,
you know, and finally he squealed it on got on
in there. Then like if he was like later in
the night, in main event, they had to they take
you out like an ambulance, back of the ambulance, back

(01:59:25):
to the little hotel where we parked at, you know,
just to get you out of it, you know. So yeah,
you know, she's stressful, Hogan. You never was last match. Hopan.
I always went early so you could get out of
the building. You know, that's Bruno style, you know exactly.
I did have the honor were getting to work Bruno too,

(01:59:46):
because me and King Kong Bundy against Bruno and Haunk Hogan,
so you know, Bruno had the old style. You know,
holts In there were in the dresser room talking and
he's talking about how it's gonna be and and Bruno
just you know, talking about doing this, ripping his shirt
and doing all that, and you can see Bruno's just
like exactly, you know. I mean for me, I was

(02:00:09):
still you know, that was a big thing to say.
You know, I got to wrestle against Bruno San Martino.

Speaker 2 (02:00:14):
You know, and you know, and it's not not a
lot of people got to work Bruno and Hogan in
the same mask.

Speaker 1 (02:00:21):
Exactly exactly, and uh, you know even for me to
you know, you know, to the normal wrestling fany don't
mean nothing, but I tell people, you know, I you know,
I went over Pedro Moreles, you know, I mean I
went over Tony Garia. These were big stars at one time,
you know, to me, that was that was you know,

(02:00:41):
and I told them guys. Man, you know, I really
appreciate this. You guys were you know, you were some
big stars and to actually go out here and put
me over, you know, you know, that was a big
deal to me. You know, for the New York area.
Them guys were huge, especially Pedro the world champion, exactly exactly,
you know, that was really something big for me. You know,

(02:01:01):
to the most wrestling fans, that don't mean nothing that
you go Pedro Morales. Yeah. Yeah, but you know.

Speaker 2 (02:01:07):
Older fans like you know, I've been wrestling twenty two,
twenty three years, you know, but I've been a.

Speaker 1 (02:01:11):
Fan for for long, you know exactly, you know that
that's a huge deal to me.

Speaker 3 (02:01:15):
And it's just, you know, it's not that like you're
bragging that you beat them.

Speaker 1 (02:01:20):
It's that, wow, they actually did this for us.

Speaker 3 (02:01:24):
Is that it's a it's a it's a great it's
a it's a great thing that you can keep with you.
It's like, well, you know, because you appreciate it so
much that they did.

Speaker 1 (02:01:32):
That, you know, exactly right, exactly right, You're right, you're
correct about that. So but I mean, I had a
great career, you know, I was lucky. I was the
luckiest human being on earth to be able to do
what I really wanted to do in life and and
make a living at it. Got to travel the world.
I don't know how many you know, continents I've wrestled on.
You know, I've wrestled in Korea, you know, Australia, and

(02:01:55):
we've got to actually go to Cuba wrestling Cuba. So
I mean, you know, I've been the luckiest man in
the world, you know, just to live live your dream
and do what you wanted to do every night of
the week, go out there and entertain thousands and thousands
and thousands over your lifetime. What else could you know?

Speaker 4 (02:02:14):
You know, like I tell what, I can't say anything else.

Speaker 1 (02:02:17):
Do you know? You're you're just if you didn't live it,
you wouldn't, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:02:22):
And that's what I like about these videos as as
we wrap up here, and that's what I love about
these videos because you get to see a different personality
and you get to see, you know, the wrestling fan
and the appreciation that comes out and all of a sudden,
so I want to thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (02:02:36):
First, let me tell you, Let me tell you, Let
me tell you Rick Flair story. Okay, this is this
is back before I was in the business. Now this
is this is the way you know, I got This
happened to me, and I said, that's the way I
want to be with fans.

Speaker 5 (02:02:51):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:02:51):
He comes to Spartanburg. It was freezing cold. Me and
my buddy we went took in regular the little picture
and had it blowed up at themorw you know, to
big sizes to you know, one for each of us
and one for Flair. You know. So we was huge
ric flair marks, you know, fans. So he was coming
into Spartanburg as they come in that little back ramp area,

(02:03:12):
you know, you know, we said, mister Flair, we got these.

Speaker 4 (02:03:15):
Is there any way you could come out and sign them?

Speaker 3 (02:03:17):
You know?

Speaker 4 (02:03:17):
And he said, give me about ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (02:03:19):
You know. We thought we ain't never gonna we never
gonna see this dude again, you know. And we stood
out there freezing their butts off, and sure enough, at
back door swung open. Here come Flair. Flair walked all
the way back there, signed the things and said where'd
y'all get these at He said, we had a maid
and we got one for you. Would you like it?
And he goes, sure, I'd like to have one. We
gave him very cool. He signed them and you know,

(02:03:40):
it was big Rick Flair signature and all that. He
shook her hands and said, I really appreciated you guys,
you know, and all that. That was like the biggest
thing in the world. You know, I said, Man, if
I ever make it in wrestling, I'm gonna be just
like that, you know. Yeah, And from then on, you know,
I always took the time if I was going through
an air portlands, oh you know, gonna miss a flight
or something. I mean, no matter what they could come

(02:04:00):
up to me, if I'm eating or whatever, I'm gonna
take time and take pictures. I'm gonna sign autographs just
because man, these people, the fans, put their harder and
money down. I mean, these people went to work at
their job, you know, whatever happened to be the steel
mill or a garbage man, whatever it was. They took
the time to actually get in their vehicle, you know,

(02:04:21):
and drive to that arena park, go in at the venue,
put their harder money down to buy a ticket, you
know what I'm saying. So I can always take time
to sign autographs, take pictures, shake hands, you know. Now,
I can. At that particular time, I couldn't because I'd
be fired. You know. The hills were heels and so.

(02:04:41):
But now when I go to these meet and greets,
you know, and no matter where I'm at, if I'm
at Walmart or something and somebody recognized me, I mean,
I'm you know, I'll take time for them any any time.
You know, even back then, through airports or whatever, I
would always stop, you know, because the fans or what.

Speaker 4 (02:04:57):
Basically, that's how I got a paycheck.

Speaker 1 (02:04:59):
If it wouldn't for fans supporting professional wrestling, nobody would
have a paycheck.

Speaker 4 (02:05:03):
So you know, I always give it to the fans.
You know, it's the fans that really make the show.

Speaker 3 (02:05:08):
You know.

Speaker 4 (02:05:09):
You go out there and have a good time and
enjoy yourself, make some noise.

Speaker 1 (02:05:12):
Whether it's WWE or an independent show, go out there
and enjoy yourself, yell, stomp, and cheer and have a
great time, you know. I mean, that's what it's all about.
It's professional wrestling. That's what you're supposed to do. Just
don't spit on them, don't.

Speaker 3 (02:05:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (02:05:27):
We don't want you throwing anything on people. But just
have a good time, you know, that's what it's about.
I still love professional wrestling. You know, I'm not saying
I watched the current product. But if I watch on YouTube,
it's all old school. I watch all old school wrestling.
I can watch it all day long. I don't watch myself.
I can't watch myself, but I'll watch, you know, any
of the other territories that I you know, and if

(02:05:48):
I come on just out of the blue on TV
or something, I just get I gotta go. You know,
I'm too critical of myself. But but anyway, you know,
like I said, it's all fans. There's been an honor
talking to you. You're the old school man. You want
to keep the old school of life. What are you
talking about? You know, And it's been an honored and

(02:06:08):
I'm glad you're inviting me here to have a little
talk with you. You know, there's not many people I
can really set you know, nobody lives around me that
really knows wrestling. You know, they know who I am,
but I can't saw it sit and talk wrestling because
they don't know the history of it, you know. But
somebody like you, you know, you know the history. You
know what it was like growing up being a fan
of wrestling, you know, and and really being determined to

(02:06:32):
be a wrestler. You know, that's a it's great talking
to somebody like that. That's why I can keep going
for hours and hours and hours. You know, I appreciate it. Yeah,
it's such a pleasure to talk. I'm serious. I'm serious.

Speaker 3 (02:06:44):
For high spots, this is old school Secreo and the
One Man Gang.

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