WEBVTT
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Welcome everybody to double X Handle Smash.
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I'm Johnny O, and this is Josh O.
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Together we are the O's, and we are here back on the show.
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Back on the show with our returning guest, our returning champion, the manager of champions, Mr.
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Bill Alfonso.
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Hey boys, it's great to be on your show, man.
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I'm super excited for you guys.
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Start back with your uh great uh uh podcast, man.
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I know you guys have got a lot of superstars lined up, including me.
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Well, thank you for joining us.
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Uh I absolutely adore your office.
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Uh that is such an awesome visual to have like right in front of us right now.
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So that's so yeah, that's fantastic.
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I love that.
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Well, how'd you get it?
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Did you get the air same person that airbrushes uh RVD's tights?
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No, for for which one?
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For your the front of your desk.
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The front of your desk.
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Oh no, no, that was a that was a uh uh uh WrestleCon that I was on.
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Oh, okay.
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All right, yeah, it looked like it looked um it looks great.
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It looks fantastic.
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Yeah, for our for our podcast listeners, uh right now Bill is set up in his office um and the front of his desk, it's the old school ECW brick with him coming out of it, and it is awesome and whatnot, and we can see merch in the background.
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So that for our podcast listeners, uh yes, please listen to us on the podcast, but also go ahead and check out our YouTube.
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Bill, what what kind of what kind of m memorabilia do you got uh with you?
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You you've uh been in the wrestling business for for what over 30 years or uh this is my 45th year.
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Wow.
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Wow, wow.
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If you can believe it, I started full-time in 1980 and uh still working almost every weekend this weekend.
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In fact, this weekend I have a show for a company called CCW Coastal Temperature Wrestling, they're big in Florida.
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They run over a hundred shows a year in the state of Florida and Tennessee, and I'm in uh it's around West Palm Beach Port St.
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Lucie having a big uh big fiasco uh double cage match this weekend.
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I'm involved in all that stuff.
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So um what kind of memorabilia do I got?
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I got a ton of classic pictures, uh, tons of magazines, uh um some just some really cool pictures is what is what I uh uh like.
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And I got a few belts.
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I got a belt that uh the NWA uh belt that Harley Race had and Ric Flair had before they changed it.
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When I went to uh Tokyo in '91 with WCW, they had that new belt, but I got the old one that Harley Race gave me.
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Somebody that's awesome.
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Somebody had it made for him.
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And that's the belt that I'm holding up with uh over Flair right there.
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Can you see that okay?
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Yep, yep.
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Yeah.
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And uh so somebody uh made it for Harley Race, and I've refereed so many of Harley Race's matches here in Florida.
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Harley Race gave it to me.
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Look at that.
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I mean this belt for maybe now as well.
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Wow.
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But you know, something special that uh, you know, Harley Race gave it to me, you know?
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Yeah, yeah.
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I was a big huge fan, or both of us.
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Well huge fans of Harley Race and Terry Funk.
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Yeah, actually, that perfect first question.
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Uh, memories of Harley Race.
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Wow.
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What a uh uh what a legend in the business.
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Real tough guy.
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Um you know he goes back to the 60s and 70s and 80s and all the way up to the 90s, wasn't he, in uh WWF back in the day.
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He managed Vader in in WCW.
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He was he was still taking bumps in like the mid-90s.
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Yes, yeah, and he could go, and uh he had that belt all over the world for a while, and uh he used to come into Florida for several times a year and defend it against you know Dusty or Merrick Wyndham or whoever, you know.
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Uh so I got to ride with him a lot.
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It was my job as a referee for working for Jampship Wrestling from Florida to pick up, you know, guys like that would come in for the week, like Andre the Giant would come in for the week, do the loop, Moolin would come in for the week, the Midget would come in for the week, Abbey would come in for the week, World Champion come in for the any specialty item uh that we brought into the territory.
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That's how it was back then.
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Uh it was uh uh my job to pick these guys up and take them for the loop for the week.
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Monday night, West Palm, Tampa, Tuesday, Miami, Wednesday, Thursday, Jacksonville, Friday and Saturday with spot shows in Sunday, Orlando repeat itself week after week.
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I don't know how we drew three to five to six to ten thousand people every freaking week on these, you know, back in the day.
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It was crazy.
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Sounds amazing.
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Um, do you have any stories of like Harley race?
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Like when you first met Harley, did you uh where was it?
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When was it?
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Uh do you remember the first meeting?
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Do you do you were you guys did you guys hit it off instantly?
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Yeah, for some reason I hit it off.
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Um I was a little starstruck because I grew up watching wrestling, you know, and here I am working with these superstars, you know what I mean?
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Uh but then he's just a he's a regular guy, but and and badass, so you have any badass Harley stories?
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Um he was a drinker.
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He was a drinker, so we'd uh uh he'd always like a big car, like a Cadillac.
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We'd read a Cadillac or a Lincoln, and I would be driving, of course, and he would uh you know buy a case of beer, just kind of like Andre and drink a case of beer on the way back from Miami, pretty cool.
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Uh and he liked to haul ass too, man.
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He had me driving 90 to 100 miles an hour.
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Uh it was crazy.
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Just being in the ring with him and doing the 60-minute Broadway, 60-minute time limits against Barry Windham or you know, guys like that, or Jack Briscoe.
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Uh, those were 60 minutes is a long time to be in the ring, man.
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Especially in the Florida heat.
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Yes, but we were mostly in air-conditioned buildings, but some of them were not uh back in the day.
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And I told Harley, he said, Harley, man, 60 minutes is a long time.
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He said, Bonzi, here's what I do sometimes, and I want you to do the same thing.
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Uh, it'll make you it'll make the 60 minutes go by quick.
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Have four 15-minute matches in your head.
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Okay.
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And, you know, work a 15-minute match, boom, and can't do a false minute or whatever, and then go into the next 15 minutes, next 15 minutes, next 15 minutes, before you know it, you went through an hour.
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And it made sense and made my life a lot easier for some reason.
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Psychologically, I guess.
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Do you do you remember a story?
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I remember my favorite Harley story is I uh I was I remember hearing, I don't know who was saying this, but Harley was in the locker room discussing a match with somebody, and he was like, What's your finish?
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And he was telling him he does this really cool thing off the top rope, and he goes down, and Harley's like, I'll move.
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Just thought it was funny.
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You ever heard that one?
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Yeah, probably.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, and Harley racing that big dying headbutt too.
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That was pretty cool for yeah.
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I think as he got older, he didn't want to take anybody's top rope or second rope finish at all.
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Like uh how about uh Terry Funk?
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Uh that's another guy that I I I would really love to hear some stories about Terry Funk.
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He did a lot for ECW.
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Um here's a picture of uh I'm pretty sure this is in uh ECW.
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It's uh Dr.
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Dennis Steve Williams, Terry Funk and Bonzi, uh after a big melee in the ring and everybody's got juice and stuff.
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Uh Jerry was great.
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In fact, he was one of the first professional matches that um um I refereed in 19.
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I was trying to break into business in 1970, late, 78, and early 79.
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I went out to Texas to try to break in with one of my best friends, the Cuban assassin, Dave Sierra, uh Rocky Johnson, the Rock's dad, and King Curtis, and uh the Cuban out to uh um Texas, to Dallas, which there were four territories in Texas.
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Uh we talked about it the other day.
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Joe Joe Blanchard, Telly Blanchard's dad ran San Antonio or in Corpus Christi, Southern Texas, and uh Paul Boss only ran Houston, and one of the better payoff guys in the business, everybody says.
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And the Von Erickson course had Dallas in that area, and then the Funks had Amarillo and Lumping, you know, northern Texas and stuff.
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So one of the first matches I refereed, I went out there, and uh, but they had all their referees already had Rocco Lubitz, David Manny, who was a big time referee back in the day.
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Uh so it was hard for me to get a spot there, full-time spot.
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So I only worked a few times, and one of my first matches I refereed was Terry Funk in a chain match against Sabu's uncle, the Sheik, the original Sheik, Eddie Farhat.
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Uh, that's why Sabu and I get along so good, because I told him the story during the chain match, everybody was all juiced up, and and uh uh uh the sheik pulled out a pencil and stabbed the referee, which was me, and he stabbed me right here in the arm, and it broke my skin, and the lead went in my arm, but I still got the lead mark in me.
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It was like a tattoo, you know, it's like paper lead.
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Yeah, and I showed him that told him the story when I got along like this after me telling him that story.
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Yeah, you earned his respect.
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Yes, yeah, that was 1979.
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79, wow.
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And Lubbock, it's either Lubbock or Amarillo, one of the two cities.
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I can't remember exactly which one has been so long ago, but Terry was great, man.
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Uh, what a trail place.
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Or he changed the business, he adapted, you know, when he started in the 60s with his brother, Dory Funk, the tag team champions, and they both had the World Championship belt.
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Uh, and then as time went by, he adapted to the season, you know, he adapted to the to the new wrestling, you know, and to WCW and uh, you know, and all that stuff and became uh still relevant to this day.
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You mentioned Terry Punk, he's you know, he's a he's one of our legends, and he really helped us out for him and puts him over all the time, and saying he was one of the uh instrumental guys that got us over ECW.
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Yeah, very selfless man, you know, very selfless.
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He just really did a lot and gave a lot for ECW and and for everybody.
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Sorry, we lost him.
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Uh I got to work with all those guys in that era like Wild McDaniel and Dusty.
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And uh when I started full-time for Florida Championship Wrestling, um the here's I'm gonna name a few guys that were just finishing up their 25-year career, like Bobo Brazil, had a couple years left, and I got to work with Bobo Brazil and Ernie the Cat Lad and The Chic and a couple of those guys, those big names, that era.
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Then the next era was Dusty and Dick Burdox and you know uh Valentine and all those guys, and the next era was uh I guess uh Barry Wyndham and those guys.
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That's where I come in uh in the 80s.
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So I've been through quite a different uh batch of uh superstars.
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Hey, what was your what was your favorite Terry Funk retirement?
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I'm sure you've been around for more than one Terry Funk retirement tour.
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Yeah, here's a poster.
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Uh I'll show it to you guys.
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Here's a poster.
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50 years of the funk, funk fest.
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Wow.
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I think this this was an Amarillo.
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Was that the one refought Brad Hart?
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Yep, that's the Bret Hart one.
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Yep.
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And Man Can't Break.
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Bret Hart, uh, Sabu against Cactus Jack, Jack the Snake, August uh Muda, Van Damp, uh, of course, uh um Dory Jr., the bushwhackers, and a lot of a lot of stars on that.
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And I was with Sabu in that match.
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Wow.
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Nice.
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So pretty cool.
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This these things mean a lot to me.
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I try to grab them when I'm if I'm on a big show like WrestleMania 9 or something, I'll keep my memorabilia and uh or uh when I went to Tokyo.
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Um and refereed the flair Fujanaki match.
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And the Giant Gonzalez called somebody.
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I forgot who it might have been uh, what's the black guy's name?
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Uh uh anyway, giant Gonzalez had a match.
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And you know, in in Japan, there's like 25 photographers at ringside leaning against the ring, taking pictures during the matches.
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This is pretty cool.
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So after Giant Gonzalez beat his opponent, um I jumped up to get his hand up, and I jumped up on the second rope and got his hand up, and the photographers thought it was a great picture, and every photographer started taking pictures, and they made the cover of the largest sports magazine in Japan.
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Nice!
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That's awesome.
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I mean, Gonzalez was I was his personal assistant for three years, which was pretty cool.
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Yeah.
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So there's a story I want to ask you about, and I know you you've talked about this many, many times, but so you are the referee in one of the most infamous moments, the cage match between Bruiser Brody and Lex Luger, when Brody just stops cooperating with a rookie Lex Luger, and Brody was a legit bad.
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Yes.
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Wow.
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Is that you with hair?
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I was young, I was in my early 20s, brother.
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This was the early 80s, you know?
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Oh.
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So I've heard Luger talk about this, that he had no idea what what to do.
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So he just kind of shoves you, gets disqualified, and I've seen the video where he just then goes and he goes right up over the cage and runs to the back to the locker room.
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Can you tell us what I imagine it never happened?
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It was a bad booking.
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Luger was very green and just breaking the business, and he had that phenomenal body and the office, and here Hiro Basuda was a big star back in the day, and he owned part of Jefferson Rescue from Florida.
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He trained legs Luger, and and they were hand-picking his opponents uh and putting them over.
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And you know, uh, uh, you know, Luger wasn't a fantastic worker.
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Uh he was okay.
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He got by, and he he learned as he he got better as as time went by, but at that time he was still green as grass.
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And that man should have, they should have never put temperamental superstar, Bruce of Roti, who's one of the biggest stars in the business, a big star in Japan.
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And, you know, he came in for the weekend at the loop and stuff, and they thought it'd be a good idea to put him in there with Lex Luger.
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And um they put him in there, and then uh I'm not sure if they talked before the match at all.
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I don't think they did, because back then the heels and baby faces got dressed in two different dressing rooms, and now they got messages back to and forth to each other was through me and through a referee, you know.
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Uh the the guys wouldn't see each other until they got in the ring.
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And you can call the match in the ring back then, you know, it was common practice.
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Uh so they I I don't think they saw each other too much before the match, and then Luger got in there with it, you know, they lacked up the cage and did the intros and the bell rung, and and uh Luger didn't know what to do.
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And Bruce and Brody said, Who is this young fucking kid?
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You know?
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Uh and not that Luger um um Brody was gonna take advantage of him or anything.
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He would have worked with him, but Luger did listen to him, and and uh and anyway, uh Brody wouldn't sell for him, and and finally Luger says, Fonzi, what'd I do?
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What'd I do?
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He was freaking out.
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It only went five or six minutes, you know, until Luger figured out.
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Uh all he had to do was really listen to Brody, but I think he just freaked out.
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And uh rightfully so, you know, he's green as grass.
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Uh I said, what should I do?
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I said, well, if you want to grab me, the referee, and throw me against the cage, I'd DQ you and the match would be over, you know, it'd be the shit finish, but that's exactly what happened.
00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.279
And uh Lugu grabbed me, threw me against the gates.
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I sold for a second, rang the bell, disqualified.
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Lugar got Brody's stand up and Luger climbed the gate and it split, man.
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He was really freaked out.
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Yeah.
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Bruiser Brody was a very imposing figure.
00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:02.480
Yeah, if I thought Brody was mad at me, uh I I I wouldn't even climb over the cage.
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I would have just gone through that fucking thing.
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Okay.
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You it would have been like a Looney Tunes cartoon.
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You would have just seen the imprint of my body through the cage, and you would have seen a plume of smoke as I ran out of that building.
00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:21.759
How'd you feel about Bruiser Brody as a person?
00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.480
Like, I mean, talking to him, and he was a real nice guy.
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:25.519
I liked him.
00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:26.240
I liked him.
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:27.359
I thought it was great.
00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:34.640
Uh I didn't get to work with him that much, only a few times, because you know, he spent the majority of his time in Japan.
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.200
Uh but he'd come into Florida.
00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:43.359
Florida attracted every superstar in the country uh in the world came through here.
00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:53.279
Mill Mascaris and, you know, Harley Race and the Briscoes and uh uh Bruiser Brody, every, you know, Abdullah butcher, so everybody came through here.
00:19:53.440 --> 00:20:00.079
So um I didn't get a chance to work with them a lot, but I worked with them, you know, on occasions and I liked them.
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:01.440
I got along with everybody.
00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:06.799
And remember, it was my job to pick up these guys and take them around the territory for the week.
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:17.759
Like Abdullah and, you know, and the champion Moolah, which I mentioned earlier, the midgets would come in for the week, and I would have the midgets in my car driving them around, which is pretty cool, you know.
00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:26.799
Uh, back then when you did the match with Brody and Luger, uh, I just want to talk about the evolution of uh how a referee is from then to now.
00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:31.200
Uh back then, did you guys wear the earpieces then or did you have those yet?
00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.240
There was no pieces, earpieces in the 80s, no.
00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:38.720
So you would communicate probably for somebody at ringside if somebody had to tell you something then?
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:41.200
Well changing.
00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:42.000
So it's an update.
00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.640
I mean, the the match is starting.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:54.319
I mean, it's up to the two wrestlers in the ring to, you know, if they had like a 20-minute time limit, they would get their job done in the 20 minutes and and and finish the match.
00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:02.799
Uh but stuff on the fly, like they're directing us, tell us maybe during TV when we were taping TV was a little more intricate.
00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:03.039
Yeah.
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:11.599
But they didn't have a headpieces back in the 80s that for TV, they just had some guy come out and, you know, then give us a signal and go home or something.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.480
But TV matches were short anyway.
00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:15.119
You know.
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:48.559
Do you remember a time refereeing at all where you were, you know, things were had to be improvised in the ring and uh the finish was changed, and did you have to uh relay that to them, or did they already kind of uh take that, make that decision on their own, or well, if something wasn't going right, if somebody got hurt, they'd have to cut the match short and go home, that happened several times, or somebody get busted open, or broke an arm, or something where somebody really got hurt and they had to change the finish, or but they would change it in a way what nobody knew but us.
00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:48.880
Right.
00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:50.240
Yeah, right.
00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:51.200
Yeah.
00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:59.759
Um I talked to you yesterday a little bit on the phone, uh, discussing this interview, uh, and I was gonna ask.
00:22:00.559 --> 00:23:56.160
you uh your memories of going to hawaii and working for the uh uh my um my Avia family um the how how uh you want to talk about that and I was in Florida refereeing Florida Championship Wrestling I met everybody in there and and uh Mark Lewin the Purple Hays uh was a big star he's just turned uh either 79 or I think he just turned 79 uh recently he's still alive and Liz in Hawaii anyway they um they were running a big show at Aloha Stadium and Mark Lewin and Kevin Sullivan were on the show and kind of helping put the show together with Rocky Johnson and and uh The Rock's mom Peter Babia's uh daughter uh at Aloha Stadium and they filmed half the stadium and uh they asked me if I wanted to come out for a free and I said uh hell yeah of course I did and that was you know my first time in Hawaii and my first time uh um kind of even it's almost like leaving the country you know what I mean it's a you know a 12-hour flight and this swaying the hell away but I really enjoyed it so that was my first time but after that after going to Japan a few times I would uh you would stop in Hawaii sometimes and take a five day vacation because you're coming back with a good payday like I made excellent money when I went there in 91 uh and referee to Fujinami Rick Flair man 65,000 people at the Tokyo Dome so I got a good payday so and plus they pay for your hotel and the airfare and food and all that so I stopped in Hawaii on the way back and spent a week there it was pretty cool with King Curtis and Mark Lewin and those guys.
00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:23.279
Did you meet a young uh Dwayne Johnson while you're in Hawaii well no I met him in Florida because I remember I started in 1980 and Rocky Johnson was in and out of the territory for several years and um the Rock was just a little kid maybe six or seven, eight years old and he was in the dressing room doing handstands, walking out his hands and stuff.
00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:24.400
It was pretty cool.
00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:45.680
I remember that when I met him when we did some crossover with ECW and WWE back uh I guess in the 2000s or something we tried to and I seen the rock and we talked for a minute and he said I do remember you Ponzi you were a referee with my dad back in Florida so we hit it off pretty cool.
00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:48.559
I got I never got to work with him though.
00:24:49.359 --> 00:25:12.799
As he became the Rock and one of the biggest stars in the business you know now he's huge doing movies for Disney to sign like a$200 million deal with Disney so after Florida did you go directly to the Crockett territory no I went to um can you guys hear me okay?
00:25:12.960 --> 00:26:02.799
Yep hear you perfectly when I started 1980 with Florida and you know who Tommy Young is oh absolutely the the the sliding referee he was a big big time referee one of the main referees uh in uh Mid-Atlantic for Jim Crockett and they exchanged uh I guess it was 81 or 82 that they sent me uh to Mid-Atlantic and they brought Tommy to Championship Wrestling from Florida and they exchanged us for a while was just temporarily to get the heat off because back in the day the referees would get a lot of heat you know the he who would put his foot on the rope or use a brass knuckles and the referee doesn't see it I'd walk out and get more booze than some of the heels people hating me sometimes because I their guy didn't win.
00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:41.039
So anyway they they exchanged us and that's when I went to Mid Atlantic and worked for the Crockets uh uh back in the early 80s but I went from Florida tempership wrestling until the territories closed and then I went right to TBS Okay so you're there when the Crockets have to sell to Ted Turner right that was way that was I was still in Florida temperature wrestling okay uh and that happened I guess in the late 80s or the early 90s then 88 is is the year they sold.
00:26:41.279 --> 00:27:53.680
Yeah yeah I was in Florida okay and then and then and the territories were closing up you know the WCW was taking over and WWF was you know they were more mainstream and and the smaller territories or the big territories like Florida Tennessee Mid Atlantic Oregon Texas all these territories Kansas City uh Minnesota all these territories were closing up and just there was a market for the big two you know we went nationwide and stuff and I was lucky enough that uh Dusty was in charge uh in the early 90s for WCW and I worked for Dusty several years here in Florida and then he brought me in to do that Fujinami Ric Flair match and then after that match they he hired me full time in WCW I guess late 91 right after the Flair Fujinami match in Tokyo he he on the way on the way back said Vonji it's gonna happen for you baby and then get a phone call from JJ Dillon says Dusty wants to know when you can start I said anytime so I started right away and was there almost three years before I went to uh WWF.
00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:58.160
So that's actually a perfect segue do you have any good Dusty Roads stories?
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.880
I was just gonna say that as well where you read my mind.
00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:03.519
We didn't even have that written that's great.
00:28:04.559 --> 00:30:09.680
The American dream uh yeah I love Dusty man uh Dusty was almost like a father figure to me and he really taught me the business in fact uh um I'd meet him you know the show starts at eight at eight o'clock and Dusty wanted to be there exactly you know 6 45 7 o'clock at the latest and remember I told you the hills and the baby faces would get dressed in two different dressing rooms and we never see each other so I'd meet Dusty at seven at seven o'clock and he'd give me the the line up the list of the matches uh who's going over who's and and I would carry over to the hill side and tell the guys uh so one day I was late it was sold out there was a line real long line uh to get in that this was in Orlando and I was late I got there about 715 and Dusty said why are you late I said oh man the place is sold out there was a line I had to wait in line to get in with my car and stuff he said we'll leave early I was never late again now I'd rather be two hours early than five minutes late he taught me that and I was never late again and Dusty taught me to finish he was very intricate you know and I'd have to learn all these finishes and and carry them over from once from the baby face to the hillside uh uh Dusty was great uh uh uh um and he was over he was a big superstar here in Florida big nationwide superstar in fact let's see uh we talked about this show today I told you I would tell you a little more about it um holidays were big um big uh uh events for us like Thanksgiving would be at the Lakeland Civic Center with a big show you know after everybody eat their turkey at 8 o'clock at night the bell rings and there's a huge match sold out so Christmas night December 25th I forgot what year it was in the mid-80s it was Dusty against Kevin Sullivan and the loser leaftown and the Bayfront center in St.
00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:11.200
Petersburg Tampa St.
00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:32.880
Pete Tampa Bay uh and then of course it was sold out and it was Dusty in the cage with Kevin Sullivan lose the leaftown on Christmas night and then the matches started and there was Santa Claus's walk around full Santa Claus gear you know with a big bag handing out presents and candy to the kids and shit.
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:48.559
So they got the match going and all of a sudden one of the Santa Clauses jumps the rail and hands uh Kevin Sullivan a pair of brass knuckles and he hits Dusty down Dusty goes and he pins him one, two three nobody could believe it.
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:58.160
Dusty has to leave town now you know lose to leave town and then the camera followed the um Santa Claus back and it would end up being Jake the snake.
00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:05.440
No you know so that was some type of angle and then of course Dusty came back as a Midnight Rider and did that for about a year.
00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:07.599
I love the Midnight Rider storyline.
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:11.599
Yeah I loved because he because he did it again in WCW too.
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:40.160
It's awesome hey how was um like as far as approachable guys uh uh backstage and as a fan so like say if another wrestler wanted to talk to Dusty how approachable was Dusty how approachable was Ric Flair and how approachable was someone like Barry Wyndham for the wrestlers and for someone like a fan you know looking for their attention or something but both both sides.
00:31:40.400 --> 00:34:16.079
Well the boys the wrestlers uh approachable we're we're a family you know we're working 300 back then we were working 350 days a year basically in Florida so we were together almost every night we're we were like a damn family so everybody was approachable and uh and uh uh as far as the fans I mean like easy to talk to like like was Dusty approachable like he was in a management role uh booking and stuff would would you would would it be able to uh approach him easy to talk to him or what did he also close himself out relatively it was relatively easy because Dusty did his job and you know uh as long as it didn't interfere with any work uh yeah Dusty was very approachable and I remember after the matches we would have after parties and go to the bars or you know and uh all hang out there be 20 wrestlers in the bar there's a place called an imperial room on Tuesday nights and all the boys would go yeah Dusty was very approachable everybody was basically uh unless somebody had a bad night or something but you know the assos don't last long in the business you know gotta be pretty cool pretty stable uh and well like to be have a long career can't be a dick in the business yeah um as okay as far as matches you've refereed what do you think your top four matches that you've refereed what are your favorite ones that you did well of course I'm gonna mention the Ric Flair uh Fujinami match in front of 65,000 people at the Tokyo Dome that was pretty impressive and they had a hell of a match uh I have to mention my WrestleMania match even though it wasn't the match of the year it was Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez but it was on WrestleMania you know big stars and I was a referee that match um and several of the matches uh um Harley Race and Barry Windham uh Terry Funkin' the chic there's been so many man Kevin Sullivan and Dusty uh Jake the Snake and uh man it was just so many uh I was on the first Monday night raw and I think the first or second or third week it was uh Marty Gennetty against um his old partner Shawn Michaels and they switched the belts yeah I remember you in that yes yep yeah Curry Henney came out Mr.
00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:30.719
Perfect and threw the towel that uh uh Shawn Michaels and Sean showed the towel very and uh Marty Gennetti pinned up one the belt it's pretty cool I got a picture of that somewhere I've watched that match so many times as a kid and I I wore that one out on the tape.
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:55.119
Yep yeah that was 1993 yeah yep Marty Ginetti is very very uh underrated yeah he was a working fool he he just had some recent health problems and going through some health problems but um I think he's doing pretty damn good so far yeah I reached out to him and he actually wrote me back thank you so that was that was really cool.
00:34:55.360 --> 00:39:33.280
Yeah he was a hell of a guy um so so we touched on him a little earlier memories of Brian Pillman well when I went to he came to Florida and worked with us a little bit here and then uh WCW uh he was a big star and a tough guy too and a good looking kid and he can work his ass off but he had some injuries playing you know I think he played for the Bingos in San Diego Bangos didn't he for I think he was in the CFL as well yeah yeah he was a little bit beat up when he got into the business but had a hell of a body great guy the women loved him the promoters liked him he was an attraction he can work his ass off uh best mullet in the business yeah he he did have one of the best mullets in wrestling history yeah yeah he had a great look he was a good looking kid man and uh he would dress fucking like a superstar and they treated him like a superstar women were standing in line to hang out with him um okay so last you know when we were just talking I asked you a question about being your uh what your favorite referee matches are you mentioned Undertaker versus Giant Gonzales the Giant Gonzalez let's talk about him we talked about it a few years ago when you were on before but I want to refresh some fans' memories here if they're not what if they're watching for the first time um he was legit 7 foot seven inches right yeah the Bible man's eight foot but he was legitimately seven seven boy he was playing European basketball and was a big star in Europe he was seven seven and the athlete playing basketball he was really good plus he was tall as hell so one of the scouts for Ted Turner you know Ted Turner owns a CNN the Atlanta Braves a Hawks or WCW owns everything in Atlanta uh we just lost Ted Turner this year I think um he brought they brought him in to play for the Atlanta Hawks but he couldn't pass inspection his knees were starting to bother him so he couldn't play he could probably play 10 minutes of hardcore NBA ball but that wasn't good enough so they um uh they brought him in to play for the Hawks and Turner told him hey don't worry you can't play for the Hawks but I own this wrestling company we'll make you a wrestler he said wrestling what's that didn't know anything about wrestling so again they train trained him for about nine months who trained him do you know do you know who trained him and uh and uh he became al gigante in uh wcw do you know who trained him um what the the school there the WCW school uh I forget the guy's names uh sergeant Buddy Lee Parker or Buddy Parker or something like that yeah yeah yeah the park yeah Ryan's guy yeah yeah they were training them and you know they weren't training him to do monkey flips or sunset flips or you know stuff like that they were training them to be the giant you know and he eventually got it he was never a class A worker he didn't really get the business that well but what got him over was the size and he needed uh somebody to take care of him and Dusty asked me said Vonzi would you take care of uh uh my giant for me he needs 24-7 care we're pay you extra I was already making six figures in WCW said we'll pay you a little more and get you a Cadillac I had a Cadillac 365 days a year for the giant and we traveled the world together and we ended up doing things like uh uh Baywatch Pamela Anderson and Baywatch and doing uh Thunder in Paradise Hulk Hogan's TV series he had for two years that was uh we ended up having a one of the episodes on that so it's funny how many perks that I would get from being around the giant you know being this personal assistant like I got a fuck I had a cell phone my cell phone rings and I'm identified number and he said Vonti I said yeah he said Ted Turner so I've never met I've seen Ted one time and the whole time I was there came to one of the shows uh and what he and the Braves so this was I think in 9192 when the Braves or Atlanta Braves are winning a lot of World Series.
00:39:33.360 --> 00:40:13.360
Remember they won like back-to-back World Series uh like through maybe two or three years in a row they were in the running and he said Vonsi I need a favor from you I said yes sir anything he said I want you to go to the Braves game and I want you to sit where me and Jimmy Carter would sit in the presidential box and uh you know uh and we're the camera's gonna pan over to Giant Gonzalez and the Brook and the announcer would say hey the Raves are doing so good it brings the largest athlete on the planet over to watch them and then pan over and they wouldn't say and Vonzi too they would I'd just be sitting next to them but some of the perks like that were pretty fucking cool.
00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:23.360
You know being on Baywatch with a giant I was on the background playing volleyball I never had a park but they you know uh that was pretty cool.
00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:43.760
Um what when uh the timeline here so you worked for WCW with elegante and then you moved on to WWE or did Giant Gonzalez go there first you went first or how that was together what what what happened was uh you know the name when I say Jim Hurd.
00:40:44.079 --> 00:41:35.920
Yep yep the guy who fired Rick Flair he was the CEO of uh the pizza corporation or something was real good with money or something so they brought him in he hadn't he had no knowledge about wrestling but he had knowledge about running big companies and and the budgets and stuff so when he came in he approached a lot of the wrestlers were making big big money and he wanted to shave the um overhead down and he approached me and giant Gonzalez along with several other guys and he got me and Jack Gonzalez in uh in the office and said hey we you know we're saving some money we want you guys to take a pay cut you're still gonna make good money but you're not gonna make I'm not sure the the exact figure but but the first year was like 350 for giant Gonzalez the next year 450 and so on.
00:41:36.079 --> 00:42:21.840
So he wanted us to take it like a uh 30% pay cut for no reason we had legitimate contracts and uh we didn't want to do that and giant uh he said we'll give you guys some time to think about it giant Gonzalez said Fonti what are our options here well I don't want to take Kut I said I would either say what do you think our options are I said well you could probably go back and play European basketball if you wanted to but there's not big money in European basketball or you probably probably be able to go to Japan and wrestle in Japan as the big guy the largest South on the planet you know 20 weeks a year 10 15 weeks a year or uh he said do you know anybody in WWF?
00:42:21.920 --> 00:43:06.639
I said yeah I know JJ Dillon he was Vince's right hand man he was like the assistant booker and he was assistant booker down here in Florida championship wrestling uh for Dusty so I worked with JJ for years and years and you know JJ knew me really well so I said he said Fonse can you call WWF and see you know if we have any options there so I said okay so I called Titan Towers W I said uh and uh they answered the phone I said uh JJ Dillon please who's calling I said uh uh Bill Fonzi Alfonso and JJ picked up the phone right away I didn't think I could you know it's a a multi fucking million dollar company and I called JJ and get right to him like that.
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:33.039
He did it out of courtesy and we talked for a few minutes said what can I do for you Vonz I said well I explained to him about Jim Heard wanted to take us a pay cut and I wanted to see if Vince would be interested in giant Gonzales uh we can go to Japan or we can go play play European basketball and he said well let me let me run to my Vince and I'll get back with you.
00:43:33.199 --> 00:44:04.000
So we hung up the phone and 15 minutes later the phone rings and it's JJ says uh Vince is definitely interested when can you guys come up I said well Jack Gonzales just had a spur taken out of his heel so we're on downtime for eight days while he heals up he says can you guys come up tomorrow I said yeah we can come up tomorrow because I had Jack Gonzales at my parents' home on uh on uh 20 acres on a Lake house, um doing nothing but healing.
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:11.280
So we I said, well, JJ, I still fly first class and I can fly coach of course, and we're a package deal, you know.
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:14.800
I'm his handler, plus I can referee and so on and so on.
00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:19.920
So we flew up to be um WWE.
00:44:20.239 --> 00:44:34.559
So we we fly into uh Connecticut, and the limo picks us up and takes us right to Vince's house, not to the office we were expecting to go to Titan Towers, which you guys have passed many times and seen on the you know on the side of the interstate.
00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:38.639
So we went to right to Vince's house, and we walk in.
00:44:38.719 --> 00:44:48.559
There's Vince with his big green suit on with nice shoes on, and he walked in, he was amazed at Giant's house because Giant was actually amazing.
00:44:48.719 --> 00:44:56.000
I was with him three years every day for three years and was amazed every freaking day when I saw him.
00:44:56.320 --> 00:45:04.079
Uh it was crazy, and and uh um so he said, Yeah, we're definitely interested.
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:18.480
Uh and I said, Well, so Giant Gonzalez told Vince, hey, uh WCW still owes me 60 grand, and uh we gotta go back there, square all that up, and finish my deal.
00:45:18.559 --> 00:45:19.760
And he said, Don't even go back.
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:24.719
JJ write giant Gonzalez a check for 60 grand signing bonus, and he did.
00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:36.159
And this was uh close in December, or it might have been in December, and Giant Gonzalez told Vince, he said, Look, I haven't been home for three years for Christmas.
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:39.920
I'd like to go home and start sometime in January, you know?
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:48.559
And and uh and um Vince said, Oh, that'd give us time.
00:45:48.639 --> 00:45:52.079
He said, Of course you go home, that didn't give us time to create a gimmick for you.
00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:53.599
They made them giant Gonzalez.
00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:56.960
They didn't like how he got the, so they put the fur gimmick on him.
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:08.320
So anyway, Giant Gonzalez went home for Christmas, and he said, Bonti, do you want to start in January when the giant comes back and we start you guys together?
00:46:08.400 --> 00:46:11.199
I said, No, I'd rather start as soon as possible.
00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:15.519
That way I get you know the format of your company now.
00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:20.719
So when giant comes back, I'm familiar with the company and so on and so on.
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:22.880
He said, Okay, JJ put him to work.
00:46:23.039 --> 00:46:40.320
So JJ started uh adding me to the booking sheet, you know, and uh my first week, Giant went home, my first week was in December, was in Madison Square Gardens, and said, you know, uh gave me a booking sheet for uh for the month.
00:46:40.719 --> 00:46:50.239
Uh and my first week was uh Madison Square Gardens because WCW didn't run there, because you know that's fixed territory.
00:46:50.719 --> 00:46:55.360
So I said, damn, uh Madison Square Gardens is the most famous arena on the planet.
00:46:55.440 --> 00:46:57.280
What's more famous than Madison Square?
00:46:57.360 --> 00:46:57.760
Nothing.
00:46:57.920 --> 00:46:58.800
Tokyo Dome?
00:46:59.039 --> 00:46:59.199
No.
00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:06.000
Madison Square Gardens is the premier uh uh venue on the planet.
00:47:06.239 --> 00:47:10.000
So I was excited my first freaking week I'm in Madison Square.
00:47:10.079 --> 00:47:14.320
So, and I was making money in WCW, so I was dressing really nice.
00:47:14.400 --> 00:47:40.960
And uh, you know, I don't have blonde hair and big arms, so I gotta dress nice because you know, about warfare zuubas or jeans and a nice polo shirt or something, to the matches and referee, and uh but if I came in, Matt Square Gloids with a nice suit and a Rolex on nice luggage and your hair perfect, they know you're somebody.
00:47:41.039 --> 00:47:45.679
They know who the fuck you are, but you gotta be somebody looking like a million dollars, you know.
00:47:46.159 --> 00:48:09.119
So my first week I I walk in and I'm dressed beautiful with a suit of Samaritan Rolex, uh, hair of fucking nice fucking Louis Madon luggage and all that, and got to the Madison Square, and back I mentioned the Zubas, and everybody was wearing the Zubas back then, and and you know, all the referees, and Vince calls me over to the ring.
00:48:09.199 --> 00:48:12.880
This was about five o'clock in the afternoon, you know, call times early.
00:48:13.039 --> 00:48:22.000
So Vince called me over and called all the other referees and said, Erl Hebner and Dave Hebner and Kyoto and all those guys said, hey, you see how Bonji's dressed?
00:48:22.079 --> 00:48:25.280
That's how I want you guys to dress from now on, all you referees.
00:48:25.440 --> 00:48:28.239
And then I got heat with the referees for dressing like that.
00:48:29.199 --> 00:48:30.559
We're the supers no more.
00:48:30.800 --> 00:48:32.800
He in a joking way, you know what I mean?
00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:35.840
But uh, so that was pretty cool.
00:48:35.920 --> 00:48:38.079
So that's how we got into WWF.
00:48:38.239 --> 00:48:42.719
I called JJ and they were interested, and they hired us on the spot.
00:48:42.880 --> 00:48:49.920
We met with Vince for an hour at his home in Connecticut, and they uh uh gave us both contracts.
00:48:50.239 --> 00:49:00.159
And uh I was there for uh we came in right after WrestleMania 8, uh, did WrestleMania 9 and I left before WrestleMania 10.
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:13.440
At the time his house was starting to get uh uh beat up, you know, his body was getting beat up, he became diabetic and couldn't handle the road no more, so he was forced to retire due to his health, you know.
00:49:15.440 --> 00:49:23.760
So he went back to Argentina and I finished up in WWF, and uh then eventually Paul Heyman caught me and ECW's another story.
00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:28.320
Uh before we get to that, um uh some questions about Giant Gonzalez.
00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:33.280
So, I mean, you have some keepsakes and stuff uh from that time from Giant Gonzales?
00:49:33.519 --> 00:49:41.840
Do you uh did you Yeah, I got a lot of pictures and magazines and uh and uh stuff in my mind, like we went to Baywatch.
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:51.119
I got pictures with Pamela Anderson, Ramin's everybody liked the giant because he was but he's eight photographs seven seven legitimate.
00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:51.360
Yeah.
00:49:51.599 --> 00:49:54.639
So he was a God's wonder, one of God's gifts, you know.
00:49:55.280 --> 00:49:56.400
So the girls liked him, huh?
00:49:56.960 --> 00:49:58.880
A lot of memories like that, you know.
00:49:59.039 --> 00:50:05.440
And uh we spent three years together, seven days a week, 365 days a year together.
00:50:05.599 --> 00:50:08.639
We weren't on the road, we were together in Florida.
00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:09.360
Yeah.
00:50:09.599 --> 00:50:10.880
Or Atlanta.
00:50:12.559 --> 00:50:16.079
So the girls, the girls were after the giant Gonzalez.
00:50:17.440 --> 00:50:18.559
Oh yeah.
00:50:18.800 --> 00:50:26.800
Um so giant Gonzalez, you know, Andre was already full-fledged, had the Giants disease.
00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:27.840
I forgot what it's called.
00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:29.599
Uh yeah, giantism or something.
00:50:29.679 --> 00:50:30.400
I forgot what it's called.
00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:32.400
Yeah.
00:50:32.639 --> 00:50:37.280
Um so the giant was still good looking.
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:46.480
His his forehead wasn't protruding, his jaw wasn't getting bigger, he was just big, but it's proportioned well, and the women freaking loved him.
00:50:46.639 --> 00:50:51.840
And I'm not talking about the girls that just came to the wrestling matches like we were in California.
00:50:52.159 --> 00:50:54.559
Uh this little uh pretty good story.
00:50:54.639 --> 00:50:55.920
I'm glad it happened back then.
00:50:56.000 --> 00:51:00.239
I'm happily married, but I'll still tell the I told my wife the story.
00:51:02.159 --> 00:51:07.760
Um we were in California, Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Forum doing the show.
00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:12.079
And we had uh in daytime, we were walking around the mall.
00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:22.239
We had housewives following us around beautiful girls, just interested in him because he was just a big, tall Hispanic, good-looking kid, and a great personality.
00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:24.000
He was funny, charming.
00:51:24.239 --> 00:51:25.599
Women loved him.
00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:31.280
So uh, and you know I was with him all the time as a personal assistant.
00:51:31.440 --> 00:51:44.480
So uh we were taking him to the Marriott and Los Angeles at the airport, and it'd be very ordinary for me to get a phone call from Zagan's house at three in the morning and say, Hey Ponzi, I can't sleep, I'm a little hungry.
00:51:44.639 --> 00:51:50.559
Would you mind going to In N Out Burger and give me five hamburgers and three French fries and a couple of milkshakes?
00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:52.960
And that was literally kind of my job.
00:51:55.760 --> 00:51:58.639
And I said, Of course, John, anything for you.
00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:04.719
So it was very normal for me to go get him food in the middle of the night, you know, at the hotel.
00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:09.280
We would never split a room, we would always get our own rooms, but side by side.
00:52:10.159 --> 00:52:14.639
So he called me, we're in Los Angeles, he called me, he said, Hey Mons, can you come to my room?
00:52:16.079 --> 00:52:18.159
Maybe 1 30, 2 o'clock in the morning.
00:52:18.320 --> 00:52:24.400
I said, Okay, I could say to myself, oh, he wants me to go to In and Outburger and get him some some hamburgers or something.
00:52:24.480 --> 00:52:30.159
So I go to his room, knock on his door, and he opens the door and he's standing there seven foot seven naked.
00:52:30.320 --> 00:52:32.159
And I said, Hey John, what are you doing naked?
00:52:32.239 --> 00:52:33.519
He opens the door a little more.
00:52:33.599 --> 00:52:37.280
And there's a beautiful blonde girl in bed naked.
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:41.679
I mean, she was pretty like, uh, you know how pretty Sunny was, right?
00:52:43.199 --> 00:52:44.880
That great body, Miss Hyde.
00:52:45.039 --> 00:52:47.599
And she was one of those beautiful girls.
00:52:47.760 --> 00:52:49.280
And she was naked in the bed.
00:52:49.360 --> 00:52:52.880
I said, John, and I've been a little bit embarrassed, you know.
00:52:53.039 --> 00:52:55.280
Uh he said, we got a problem.
00:52:55.519 --> 00:52:57.360
I said, Well, what's the problem?
00:52:57.679 --> 00:53:04.239
He said, Well, the girth at my uh my fucking uh junk is too is too fat.
00:53:04.480 --> 00:53:06.159
I can't get it inside her.
00:53:06.719 --> 00:53:14.000
He says, What I want you to do uh is jump on her and bang her for a few minutes and get it away and then leave it.
00:53:15.039 --> 00:53:16.159
And this is crazy.
00:53:16.239 --> 00:53:18.480
And the girl said, Please, Bonzi, help us.
00:53:18.559 --> 00:53:25.280
So my job that night was prepping a girl for a giant Gonzalez of fucking fuck her.
00:53:25.760 --> 00:53:27.199
I don't know if I can hear this.
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:33.039
Okay, Daddy, how how do you guys like that story?
00:53:33.199 --> 00:53:34.719
It's kind of kind of crazy.
00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:42.960
So um, so my job that night, instead of going to get him food at three o'clock in the morning, was uh to fluff a girl for him.
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:45.920
So and that was very unusual.
00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:49.360
That's all it happened one time in my life, you know.
00:53:49.519 --> 00:53:53.920
Uh, and you know, he was a he was the largest athlete on the planet at that time.
00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:56.239
There was nobody bigger than Jack Gonzalez.
00:53:56.480 --> 00:54:01.920
Later on, that kid from China, Ming, he came and played basketball for Houston.
00:54:02.159 --> 00:54:08.800
But uh Jack Gonzalez was the tallest athlete on the planet, and it was really cool being his personal assistant.
00:54:08.960 --> 00:54:14.000
And, you know, and he got he got my foot in the door for, you know, uh WWF.
00:54:14.480 --> 00:54:15.519
He took me along with him.
00:54:15.599 --> 00:54:17.920
He said I uh he didn't want anybody else.
00:54:18.079 --> 00:54:25.440
We got along so well, and we traveled together for three years, so he didn't want anybody else to be his personal assistant.
00:54:27.440 --> 00:54:28.800
Wow, that's awesome.
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:35.519
Um, so how was like uh like you said, you gotta give him five cheeseburgers or something.
00:54:35.599 --> 00:54:36.639
How was his diet?
00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:43.280
I mean, the feeding the giant would have probably is uh a daunting task.
00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:46.639
Like he must have spent a lot of money just on food.
00:54:47.440 --> 00:54:48.480
Yeah, he did.
00:54:48.559 --> 00:54:52.320
He was a big eater because he hadn't that big body in a few, you know.
00:54:52.639 --> 00:54:56.320
Uh and he fell in love with the food here in the United States.
00:54:56.400 --> 00:55:03.280
Remember, he was in Europe and came from a poor country, Argentina, you know, and and wasn't wealthy growing up.
00:55:03.440 --> 00:55:14.000
So uh when he came here and got to start making those big six-figure numbers, and you know, we started going to he loved a good steakhouse boy.
00:55:14.239 --> 00:55:20.960
You know, we ate a lot of elite steakhouses all over the uh country and all over the world, literally.
00:55:21.679 --> 00:55:25.440
Um but yeah, he was a huge, huge eater.
00:55:25.679 --> 00:55:28.639
Like, you know, the rotisserie chickens, he'd eat two of them.
00:55:29.360 --> 00:55:30.159
Whole ones?
00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:33.360
A whole chicken.
00:55:33.679 --> 00:55:34.000
Wow.
00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:34.960
Yeah, yeah.
00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:42.000
Eat one for sure, and some but you know, sometimes he'd order two and do a pretty good job uh almost eating both of them.
00:55:42.400 --> 00:55:44.159
Plus with the size and all that.
00:55:44.239 --> 00:55:52.239
But yeah, we'd go to In N Out Burgers or, you know, five or six of the biggest burgers and big things of fries, and yeah.
00:55:52.719 --> 00:55:54.880
And he wasn't a big drinker at all.
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:59.840
He liked a little bit of wine now and then, but uh and he was quite the athlete.
00:55:59.920 --> 00:56:01.840
He had a pretty good damn body at him.
00:56:04.480 --> 00:56:09.519
Is there one particular thing that people just misunderstand about him?
00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:13.360
Um I don't know.
00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:17.199
He was uh one of God's gifts, you know what I mean?
00:56:17.519 --> 00:56:24.239
Um people would stare at him because he was so big, but uh but you can't help it.
00:56:24.400 --> 00:56:26.480
You can't help but look at something like that.
00:56:26.559 --> 00:56:31.119
You know, you see something very unusual that you've never seen in your life.
00:56:31.599 --> 00:56:34.079
But it and and he grew to like it.
00:56:34.159 --> 00:56:36.239
You know, he would take advantage of it, you know.
00:56:36.320 --> 00:56:42.320
He would uh people wouldn't say bad things about him on golf, kind of say you make fun of him or anything.
00:56:42.400 --> 00:56:45.599
They would just, you know, had the eyes like that, looking at him wide open.
00:56:45.760 --> 00:56:48.320
So what the what the hell did I just see, you know?
00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:49.679
And people loved him.
00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:56.000
He was generally funny, had a great personality, uh, very intelligent, very smart.
00:56:56.400 --> 00:57:04.960
Uh he was just uh maybe that's maybe that's one of the uh things that people misunderstood about him, that he was so smart, you know.
00:57:07.679 --> 00:57:13.440
He was just like me and you, had feelings and uh, you know, not super educated, but smart.
00:57:13.760 --> 00:57:14.159
Smart.
00:57:14.239 --> 00:57:16.800
He got anything pretty well.
00:57:17.599 --> 00:57:19.199
I miss him actually.
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:20.239
Yeah.
00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:25.280
That was a great part of my career being with the tallest athlete on the planet for three years.
00:57:26.960 --> 00:57:37.280
Uh going to ECW, you uh went in there uh to do a you were a referee and uh end up being a heel referee for Paul Heyman.
00:57:38.559 --> 00:57:39.840
Um Yes.
00:57:40.079 --> 00:57:43.679
Well, actually, I just left WWF.
00:57:44.159 --> 00:57:50.559
And you know, Vince wants the doctor, his wife, and the two kids at ringside.
00:57:50.880 --> 00:57:59.360
ECW is 90% male from the age of 18 and 30 years old, you know, uh, and hardcore and stuff.
00:57:59.519 --> 00:58:13.599
So Paul Heyman, I had worked with Paul Heyman for uh years in WCW and Florida Tempest at Wrestling, and uh he called me and said, Fonzi, I already got released from WWF.
00:58:13.679 --> 00:58:29.599
I said, Yeah, the giant stick, you went home, and uh and business is down a little bit, and they laid me off and they're gonna hire me back when business picks back up, but they're still gonna use me in Florida, they're still gonna use me in different events for WWF.
00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:33.119
He said, Well, listen, I got this company called ECW.
00:58:33.280 --> 00:58:35.440
I said, What the fuck's an ECW?
00:58:35.679 --> 00:58:39.039
I've never, I thought it was some type of indie little company.
00:58:39.199 --> 00:58:46.079
They call them outlaw shows back when I was uh uh in the business.
00:58:46.239 --> 00:58:52.159
And uh he said, Well, we're starting this company, we got Terry Punt, we got this guy and that guy.
00:58:52.320 --> 00:58:54.639
He said, I got this idea for you, Bonji.
00:58:54.880 --> 00:59:04.960
I want you to bring in, bring you in and be anti-ECW for four weeks and try to shut us down and try to make us more sports entertainment like Vince.
00:59:05.679 --> 00:59:11.840
And I think it'll get over, and you come for four weeks, and we get 911 to choke slam you up, and then you're done.
00:59:11.920 --> 00:59:13.199
Would you be willing to do that?
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:15.519
I said, Yeah, of course, give me something to do.
00:59:15.840 --> 00:59:21.599
So I went in to be anti-ECW, and my character got over.
00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:38.239
Uh, Bill Alphonse Alfonso, anti-ECW, anti-violence, anti-chairs, anti-blood, and the people wanted to kill me uh because I was taking their entertainment in a way, their, you know, their hardcore extreme entertainment.
00:59:38.480 --> 00:59:44.000
And uh so eventually I got choke slammed, but then he put me with Taz.
00:59:44.159 --> 00:59:47.920
Because Taz had like three or four different gimmicks before he came Taz.
00:59:48.159 --> 00:59:52.000
He was Tasmania, he was monkey boy, he was this, he was that.
00:59:52.159 --> 00:59:54.159
Never got over until it became Taz.
00:59:54.400 --> 01:00:07.840
And that's when he put me and him together, and then we had that one-year uh win streak where he didn't lose a match, tough guy, and kind of introduced me into the manager role, and and uh, which was pretty cool.
01:00:07.920 --> 01:00:12.880
And then eventually I turned against Taz and went with Sabu and Van Dam, which was great.
01:00:12.960 --> 01:00:16.480
I had a great spot for you know five years that I was there.
01:00:16.880 --> 01:00:19.199
So you mentioned like how much heat you were getting.
01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:23.599
Were you ever uh uh concerned for your safety?
01:00:24.079 --> 01:00:25.599
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:46.719
But um I was around the guys all the time, but I was more of my concern would be in the arena, you know, because after, you know, the same guy that would spit on you and throw a beer on you at the ECW arena would buy you a cocktail at the you know at the holiday end after, you know.
01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:48.880
So they would just get carried away.
01:00:49.039 --> 01:01:07.360
So I don't know if I was any, well, fans do get carried away, and you know, guys have got stabbed uh uh from an excited fan, but I just was lucky, I guess, and was surrounded by a good crew, and they always took care of me.
01:01:09.360 --> 01:01:15.360
Um, so uh in in ECW, you've learned a lot from Paul Heyman.
01:01:15.440 --> 01:01:22.079
What and what did you learn from Paul Heyman in ECW that you didn't have before?
01:01:22.239 --> 01:01:26.960
Did Paul equip you with something else that you didn't have before?
01:01:28.159 --> 01:01:32.639
Well, um, who knew there was a market?
01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:38.159
Paul Heyman knew created that hardcore extreme ECW market.
01:01:38.239 --> 01:01:42.159
Who knew there was a market for you know hardcore stuff like that?
01:01:42.320 --> 01:01:46.000
Uh and I guess ECW started out, now everybody's doing it.
01:01:46.079 --> 01:01:56.079
You know, I go to these independent shows all over the country, and uh they're doing what we did in ECW in the 90s, you know, the mid-90s.
01:01:57.360 --> 01:01:58.239
Excuse me.
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:02.960
Um just was brilliant, you know.
01:02:03.119 --> 01:02:11.280
Uh and walked me through, held my hand until I got the the rhythm of ECW and uh taught me how to be myself.
01:02:11.440 --> 01:02:23.599
Uh, you know, as a referee for all those years, from Florida to WCW to WWF, you know, how how many times did you see a referee do a promo?
01:02:23.840 --> 01:02:30.960
Not very many times, you know, uh, a few times, but I really didn't know how to do a promo.
01:02:31.280 --> 01:02:44.880
So when I when they switched me from the evil anti-ECW referee to managing TAS, I was having trouble doing promos, you know, for the first week or two.
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:50.079
And he said, Fonzi, come on, you're a character, just be just be yourself.
01:02:50.239 --> 01:02:57.199
He said, you know we're gonna be in at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia on March 2nd.
01:02:57.360 --> 01:03:04.960
You know Saboo's gonna go in against Tad, you know it's gonna be a line's outmatch, you know it's just tell the truth, but in your own way.
01:03:05.039 --> 01:03:13.199
And I said, okay, I think I got it said, hey daddy, March 2nd, Tad's a taboo, daddy, anything going there, but I I got it right away.
01:03:13.280 --> 01:03:19.039
And then I became that character, spitting and hyper and all that, and I could do promos.
01:03:19.280 --> 01:03:21.039
Did you already have the whistle then?
01:03:21.440 --> 01:03:24.480
Paul Heyman gave me the whistle when he put me with Taz.
01:03:24.800 --> 01:03:25.119
Yeah.
01:03:25.440 --> 01:03:35.679
Um so we I went from the anti-ECW referee to managing TAS, and the first week he Paul Heeman brought that whistle for me.
01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:39.360
Um that was just to draw heat.
01:03:40.239 --> 01:03:50.000
I I guess, I I guess uh uh actually I I didn't know what to, yeah, I was a little embarrassed to blow it.
01:03:50.079 --> 01:03:56.079
So the next week I forgot my whistle at home, and and uh he said, hey, where's your whistle, Ponzi?
01:03:56.239 --> 01:03:57.119
That's your gimmick.
01:03:57.280 --> 01:03:58.400
And then I got it.
01:03:58.639 --> 01:04:01.840
So, you know, you recognize Ponzi as a whistle guy.
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:07.519
So if I meet a wrestling fan and, you know, oh, you think I'll blew the whistle?
01:04:07.599 --> 01:04:14.239
Oh yeah, Ponzi, boom, so they could identify me with the uh whistle, which is pretty cool.
01:04:14.480 --> 01:04:20.400
Did did you ever annoy the shit out of Taz or RVD or uh Sabu or whistle?
01:04:23.360 --> 01:04:25.119
They got used to it like I did.
01:04:25.199 --> 01:04:25.519
Yeah.
01:04:25.679 --> 01:04:35.440
And actually, I look back at some of the matches that I manage Sabu, Taz, and Pandam, and blew the whistle, you know, constantly.
01:04:35.679 --> 01:04:39.920
I thought uh back now, I said, damn, maybe I blew it too much.
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:42.239
I should have just blew it on my intro.
01:04:42.400 --> 01:04:47.119
I should have just blew it a few times during the match, not consistently.
01:04:47.280 --> 01:04:54.639
Some of the matches I blew consistently were pretty, you know, like 25% of the match I was blowing a freaking whistle.
01:04:54.960 --> 01:05:02.559
Uh but it did get heat, and we were uh bad guys for a while, but we were actually characters.
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:03.920
Everybody was a character.
01:05:04.000 --> 01:05:07.920
There was kind of really no heels and baby faces in ECW.
01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:10.000
We were just characters, you know.
01:05:10.880 --> 01:05:13.519
Even Raven was a big heel, but he was a character.
01:05:13.679 --> 01:05:14.800
People loved him.
01:05:15.119 --> 01:05:18.880
So, what are your memories of uh that year you spent with Taz?
01:05:21.599 --> 01:05:24.079
Taz is a no bullshit guy.
01:05:24.320 --> 01:05:25.760
He liked to get there early.
01:05:25.840 --> 01:05:27.119
He was a workout foo.
01:05:27.199 --> 01:05:31.280
He didn't go out and party after the match and go to the after parties and drink and all that.
01:05:31.360 --> 01:05:37.119
He was a workout foo, took his business real serious, and it made me take my business serious too.
01:05:37.199 --> 01:05:39.920
Uh when I'm working around Taz, he was a great guy.
01:05:40.079 --> 01:05:43.519
Taz was a mo motivator and they have all these young guys.
01:05:43.599 --> 01:05:45.679
This guy got a picture of us.
01:05:46.079 --> 01:05:50.000
Um, excuse me for getting up and down grabbing pictures.
01:05:50.239 --> 01:05:58.719
Uh don't worry, we're gonna ask you about RVD and Sabu as well.
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:01.440
It's a great picture.
01:06:02.079 --> 01:06:02.559
Wow.
01:06:03.280 --> 01:06:06.559
And then Taz had his crew, you know, he had all his guys.
01:06:08.079 --> 01:06:08.719
Remember those guys?
01:06:08.960 --> 01:06:09.119
Yep.
01:06:09.199 --> 01:06:09.440
Yep.
01:06:09.760 --> 01:06:10.559
Chris Chetty.
01:06:11.119 --> 01:06:13.679
Yeah, Chris Chetty, and then several other guys.
01:06:13.920 --> 01:06:14.159
Yeah.
01:06:14.639 --> 01:06:18.639
There's all kinds of action, all kinds of cards and stuff that came out.
01:06:19.360 --> 01:06:20.559
Taz was great, man.
01:06:20.639 --> 01:06:24.880
Taz was a good learning experience for me becoming a manager.
01:06:25.039 --> 01:06:28.079
So I like Taz.
01:06:28.239 --> 01:06:30.079
I'm still friends with him today.
01:06:30.320 --> 01:06:30.960
Yeah.
01:06:31.280 --> 01:06:32.719
Yeah, it was one of my favorites.
01:06:32.880 --> 01:06:33.599
I love Taz.
01:06:33.840 --> 01:06:34.719
I love Taz.
01:06:36.079 --> 01:06:41.119
Alright, so after Taz, you move over to managing RVD and Sabu.
01:06:41.599 --> 01:06:44.480
Um, memories of your time with the two of them.
01:06:45.440 --> 01:06:48.960
Wow, what a great spot that I had with those guys.
01:06:49.039 --> 01:06:56.480
Who knew that uh Van Dam was going to be one of the biggest stars to come out of ECW, the whole fucking show?
01:06:56.639 --> 01:06:56.880
Mr.
01:06:57.039 --> 01:06:58.159
Pay-per-View, Mr.
01:06:58.239 --> 01:07:00.079
Monday Night, RBD.
01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:07.920
And then Sabu was already pretty established, and Ben Dam was just getting established, you know.
01:07:08.239 --> 01:07:10.400
And man, he was a phenomenon.
01:07:10.480 --> 01:07:15.360
There's nobody like Ben Dam, you know, and he got over and he took me right with him.
01:07:15.440 --> 01:07:18.480
And man, I had such a great time.
01:07:18.559 --> 01:07:21.199
And him and Jerry Lynn had some classic matches.
01:07:21.599 --> 01:07:25.199
Whoever Ben Nam worked with had great great matches.
01:07:25.360 --> 01:07:27.039
We had fucking great matches.
01:07:27.119 --> 01:07:29.440
And he was doing stuff that nobody else would do.
01:07:29.519 --> 01:07:34.880
He had those great thighs, so he could jump and do all kind of you know martial arts stuff.
01:07:34.960 --> 01:07:37.840
And it was very cool to work with uh RVD.
01:07:38.159 --> 01:07:39.679
And I'm still good friends with him.
01:07:39.760 --> 01:07:41.760
He just had kids, he just had a set of twins.
01:07:42.000 --> 01:07:42.559
Oh wow.
01:07:42.639 --> 01:07:50.000
Oh, yeah, and they named one after he had uh he's got two girls, twins, and they named one after Sabu.
01:07:50.559 --> 01:07:51.760
Her name is Sabah.
01:07:52.079 --> 01:07:53.679
Oh, it's nice.
01:07:53.760 --> 01:07:54.000
Yeah.
01:07:54.239 --> 01:07:59.679
Yeah, because they were uh friends for you know childhood friends almost.
01:07:59.920 --> 01:08:00.559
Hmm.
01:08:00.800 --> 01:08:24.319
Um one of the things I I I really wanted to ask is like during all these promos and things you had to film uh for ECW, all the whistleblowing and everything, was it always hard to keep a straight face during this for you and your and whoever you managed, or I mean you guys are professionals, but was there ever a time where it was hard to keep a straight face?
01:08:25.520 --> 01:08:26.960
I don't think so.
01:08:27.199 --> 01:08:28.159
I don't think so.
01:08:28.319 --> 01:08:34.720
We were so into our characters and so into our things, and and some of the stuff was funny naturally, you know what I mean?
01:08:34.800 --> 01:08:36.880
And we did some funny promos and stuff.
01:08:37.039 --> 01:08:41.840
Uh uh, not not really, not really hard to keep a straight face.
01:08:42.239 --> 01:08:44.880
You know, we're in we're entertainers.
01:08:45.840 --> 01:08:46.399
All right.
01:08:46.640 --> 01:08:51.039
Uh before we wind it down, I I really want to ask you.
01:08:51.520 --> 01:08:52.800
Hey, don't wind me up, Daddy.
01:08:52.880 --> 01:08:54.159
I can talk like that.
01:08:54.319 --> 01:08:55.039
You can keep talking.
01:08:55.119 --> 01:08:59.920
Hey, if you have time, if you have time, brother, but if you have time, we can keep going.
01:09:00.079 --> 01:09:02.560
I just didn't want to uh take up too much of your time.
01:09:02.720 --> 01:09:09.199
But I wanted to ask you, and you can keep going, but I wanted to ask you first, I need some Roddy Piper stories.
01:09:09.279 --> 01:09:14.159
You said something about an alligator, and I do want to hear uh after that some rib and road stories.
01:09:14.239 --> 01:09:20.800
I need a I need one of your favorite ribs, but let's get to uh Roddy Piper and that uh alligator story.
01:09:21.039 --> 01:09:24.000
Well, I got a couple of quick stories about Roddy Piper.
01:09:24.159 --> 01:09:24.479
Sure.
01:09:24.720 --> 01:09:32.000
I remember when they they exchanged me and uh um the referee.
01:09:32.159 --> 01:09:35.680
Uh I went to Mid-Atlantic and they brought Tommy Young to Florida.
01:09:35.920 --> 01:09:54.640
So we were in, I think it was Raleigh, North Carolina, and Roddy Piper was a big heel up there, and he was coming back, he had a match with one of the baby faces, and coming back from the ring, a guy jumped over the rail and stabbed Piper with a little, you know, the little case knife.
01:09:54.720 --> 01:09:59.920
I mean, a real small little knife like that, but still stabbed him in the in the gut somewhere.
01:10:00.720 --> 01:10:06.960
And uh and that was and and I ran backstage and told Sergeant Slaughter, I said, hey, they just have Piper.
01:10:07.119 --> 01:10:10.960
They went out and beat the beat the hell out of that guy and it took him to jail and everything.
01:10:11.039 --> 01:10:12.159
But Piper was okay.
01:10:12.239 --> 01:10:19.119
But so anyway, later on back in Florida, Piper, you know, Piper's a Canadian, you know.
01:10:19.359 --> 01:10:22.640
Uh so he'd come down for the week.
01:10:22.800 --> 01:10:24.720
Remember, I told you it was my job.
01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:34.079
So when Andrea Giant would come down for the week, or you know, Fabulous Mool or the Middleton or Abby, uh the butchers, uh, it was my job to take him around.
01:10:34.159 --> 01:10:36.319
So Piper came down for the week.
01:10:36.399 --> 01:10:42.880
They he was in uh Mid-Atlantic working for Crockett, and Crockett sent him down here with Dusty for the week.
01:10:43.039 --> 01:10:47.840
And it was me, Kevin Sullivan, and a guy named Frank Deusik.
01:10:48.079 --> 01:10:52.960
Remember the famous Deusick brothers, Wally Deustick, back in the 60s and 70s?
01:10:53.039 --> 01:10:57.760
It was a famous wrestling name way before our time.
01:10:58.640 --> 01:10:59.199
I've heard of that.
01:10:59.439 --> 01:10:59.920
I've heard their name.
01:11:00.239 --> 01:11:01.279
His name was Frank Dusick.
01:11:01.439 --> 01:11:07.600
So we it was Frank Dustig, Ponzi driving, Kevin Sullivan and Roddy Piper were driving to Miami.
01:11:07.760 --> 01:11:11.840
And we're going across alligator alley and the Everglades.
01:11:12.479 --> 01:11:19.600
And uh there's a canal that runs parallel with the road that cuts from Naples all the way across.
01:11:19.680 --> 01:11:21.279
It's like a hundred-mile road.
01:11:21.680 --> 01:11:25.279
Going across it as a canal running the whole length of the road.
01:11:25.600 --> 01:11:29.199
And Piper starts spotting all these alligators and going crazy.
01:11:29.279 --> 01:11:31.439
He's never seen the alligators, a Canadian, you know.
01:11:31.600 --> 01:11:34.079
He said, Oh my god, look at that gator, look at that one.
01:11:34.479 --> 01:11:37.600
And finally he says, Man, I wish I had a gun.
01:11:38.000 --> 01:11:41.039
And Frank Dusick says, Well, I got a gun.
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:43.199
So he says, Pull over, Fonse.
01:11:43.359 --> 01:11:52.159
So we pull over, and Frank Dusik goes in the trunk and pulls out of his uh duffel bag a small little stubborn-nosed 38, this freaking big.
01:11:52.399 --> 01:11:57.520
And and the alligator's on the other side of the canal, laying on the bank of the canal.
01:11:57.600 --> 01:12:03.920
And I say the canal's like 60 or 70 feet wide or maybe or somewhere around like that.
01:12:04.479 --> 01:12:08.239
There's no way Piper's gonna shoot that alligator and hit the alligator.
01:12:08.319 --> 01:12:08.880
You know what I mean?
01:12:09.039 --> 01:12:10.720
It's one in a million shots.
01:12:10.880 --> 01:12:14.079
So, especially if it's a little stubnosed 38.
01:12:14.720 --> 01:12:20.479
So Piper takes aim, boom, he pulls the trigger, bam, and he hits the gator.
01:12:20.880 --> 01:12:27.439
Hits the gator with the fucking bullet, and the gator starts selling and frawls in the water and flips over.
01:12:27.600 --> 01:12:33.680
Now the alligator flips, he's on, you know, his stomach's uh facing up, and we think he's dead.
01:12:33.920 --> 01:12:40.880
So Piper has this great idea, and then and uh and uh the canal is full of alligators.
01:12:41.520 --> 01:12:44.319
He wasn't the only alligators, gators all over the place.
01:12:44.479 --> 01:12:46.640
So Piper says, Man, I want to get the gator.
01:12:46.880 --> 01:12:48.960
He's dead, look at him, he's floating.
01:12:49.279 --> 01:12:51.920
Uh so Kevin Sullivan has this bright idea.
01:12:52.000 --> 01:12:58.000
He says, Okay, I'm gonna walk down a little bit, I'm gonna splash the water and draw all the other alligators towards me.
01:12:58.159 --> 01:13:02.880
Meanwhile, you take all your clothes off and you swim across and get the dead gator.
01:13:03.520 --> 01:13:05.760
So Piper thought it was a great idea.
01:13:06.319 --> 01:13:08.079
You know, everybody did, I guess.
01:13:08.239 --> 01:13:11.840
So Piper strips down, he's got his white underwear on only.
01:13:12.479 --> 01:13:20.800
He gets in the water, he's up to about his waist, and he starts swimming towards the alligator, and all of a sudden, the alligator flips back over.
01:13:20.960 --> 01:13:23.840
He was only selling, he was he was like working.
01:13:24.000 --> 01:13:27.760
So the bullet hit him, but it just stunned him for a few minutes.
01:13:28.319 --> 01:13:30.720
So the alligator starts swimming.
01:13:31.199 --> 01:13:33.439
Piper's way away from the bank, you know.
01:13:33.600 --> 01:13:38.560
So the alligator starts chasing Piper, and uh it was like a cartoon.
01:13:38.720 --> 01:13:44.239
Remember the road runner where he would run into place, you know, uh on the cartoon character.
01:13:44.399 --> 01:13:48.479
So Piper was swimming so bad it was the craziest thing I've ever seen.
01:13:48.640 --> 01:13:53.760
And uh and the alligator chased Piper all the way to the you know to the shoreline.
01:13:53.840 --> 01:13:56.960
So that was a great story, close to where he never got the alligator.
01:13:57.359 --> 01:13:58.560
Uh and it's the same.
01:13:58.640 --> 01:14:00.399
Yeah, but at least the alligator didn't get Piper.
01:14:01.680 --> 01:14:03.359
But, you know, a pretty cool story.
01:14:03.439 --> 01:14:06.239
And Piper told that story until he passed away.
01:14:06.399 --> 01:14:10.399
Well was uh alcohol or other goodies involved in this?
01:14:10.640 --> 01:14:11.279
No, no.
01:14:11.439 --> 01:14:19.119
Maybe a little Paccalolo, maybe a little 420, but no alcohol because we were on the way to Miami Beach Convention Center.
01:14:19.439 --> 01:14:22.319
You don't drink out of way, maybe you drink on the way back, you know?
01:14:22.479 --> 01:14:23.119
Yeah.
01:14:23.520 --> 01:14:25.680
But no, no, no, no alcohol involved.
01:14:25.840 --> 01:14:27.760
Piper was just a little bit nuts.
01:14:28.079 --> 01:14:31.520
Well, we're glad that Piper didn't get used by an alligator.
01:14:31.840 --> 01:14:33.600
Yeah, that was a great story.
01:14:33.760 --> 01:14:39.680
It's a little more detailed than that, but uh, you know, that was a legit pretty pretty damn close to what happened that day.
01:14:39.840 --> 01:14:46.239
And Kevin Sullivan had this great idea and says, let me go over here and splash the water and draw the other alligators.
01:14:46.399 --> 01:14:48.159
They're you know, bright idea, you know.
01:14:48.399 --> 01:14:56.000
These are, you know, prehistoric creatures, alligators, you know, they're 10 foot long, they can get you that, you know, alligator.
01:14:56.239 --> 01:15:09.359
If a deer's drinking uh water, he'll grab the deer and pull the deer in the l in uh in the water and drown the deer and then take it to its, you know, uh his little house and then tear them apart, you know.
01:15:09.680 --> 01:15:12.000
Alligators are tough creatures, man.
01:15:12.479 --> 01:15:13.840
Yeah, wow.
01:15:14.159 --> 01:15:16.079
Uh he was huge.
01:15:17.520 --> 01:15:20.159
You got another uh Roddy Piper story?
01:15:20.720 --> 01:15:27.920
Yeah, just just uh just uh where he got stabbed and the alligator story bring brings to mind, you know.
01:15:28.239 --> 01:15:30.159
Piper was a great guy to travel with.
01:15:30.239 --> 01:15:36.239
Uh of course I didn't travel with him that much because you know he was in Mid-Atlantic big superstar.
01:15:36.399 --> 01:15:45.600
They just brought him down as a novelty piece, like they were bringing Flair or they were bringing uh Moola or you know, uh, you know, an attraction for the week.
01:15:46.560 --> 01:15:50.239
Um you have any experiences with uh Haku?
01:15:52.479 --> 01:15:54.640
Yeah, I worked with Haku quite a bit.
01:15:54.720 --> 01:15:55.520
He was a tough guy.
01:15:55.600 --> 01:16:02.479
I wasn't there when he bit the guy's ear off or bit his nose off and threw him through a window of the you know at a hotel.
01:16:02.640 --> 01:16:02.960
Yeah.
01:16:03.119 --> 01:16:06.560
Uh tough guy, badass, badass guy.
01:16:07.199 --> 01:16:18.239
But uh most of the times that I worked with Haku at WWF, he was, you know, we were in the ring and uh uh so I wasn't around any of his fights or anything.
01:16:18.560 --> 01:16:19.039
Yeah.
01:16:19.279 --> 01:16:28.560
Do you have any other um road stories we can share before we get to the I'll tell you about uh uh Black Jack Mulligan beating the fuck out of Buck Robley?
01:16:28.800 --> 01:16:29.920
Remember Buck Robley?
01:16:31.039 --> 01:16:34.159
No, I don't remember Buck Robley, but I still want to hear this story.
01:16:34.640 --> 01:16:41.680
So anyway, we were doing TV in Florida, Florida Tim City Wrestling, and and Barry was a big star there.
01:16:42.000 --> 01:16:45.760
They brought Black Jack in, and Black Jack was working in territory.
01:16:45.840 --> 01:16:55.039
We would take TV Wednesday morning from like 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock, and then drive to Miami for the Miami Beach Convention Center show every Wednesday.
01:16:55.199 --> 01:17:02.079
But we would do TV every Wednesday for our two-hour TV shows in Florida.
01:17:02.399 --> 01:17:06.159
Uh and Kendo Wyndham was just breaking into business.
01:17:06.239 --> 01:17:09.359
Kendo was green as grass, and he was there at the TV studio.
01:17:09.439 --> 01:17:17.039
And so Buck, this wrestler named Buck Robey, walks in the dress room and says, Hey Mulligan, you got any speed?
01:17:18.399 --> 01:17:22.640
You know, ask him for a hit of speed, like, you know, the narcotico, whatever speed.
01:17:22.800 --> 01:17:27.520
And Mulligan didn't say anything, and and Buck Robley says, Hey, don't K Baby.
01:17:27.840 --> 01:17:31.600
Everybody knows you're the biggest speedhead in the business, which wasn't true.
01:17:31.840 --> 01:17:44.319
And Mulligan fucking got fucking mad as fuck, and and Buck Roby kept walking and walked into a different room, and Mulligan followed him in there and closed the door and beat the fuck out of him.
01:17:44.880 --> 01:17:50.880
But they had to send the guy to the hospital, both of his eyes, his jaw, and he just, you know, you don't say shit like that.
01:17:51.039 --> 01:17:51.359
Yeah.
01:17:51.600 --> 01:17:52.640
Yeah, you don't know.
01:17:52.960 --> 01:17:54.079
Especially not to play.
01:17:55.840 --> 01:17:57.039
I've seen uh a few fights.
01:17:57.119 --> 01:18:01.119
You know, it was another fighter was uh remember Billy Jack Haynes?
01:18:01.359 --> 01:18:01.760
Yep.
01:18:02.640 --> 01:18:04.479
Yeah, he was kind of a crazy one.
01:18:04.560 --> 01:18:09.279
I've seen him jump on a uh I've seen him uh beat up Tiger Conway.
01:18:09.359 --> 01:18:21.520
They did add something because Billy Jack was a big fan favorite and he liked the fans and and uh they had some words with each other and uh there's quite a few fights.
01:18:21.600 --> 01:18:29.039
I'm not talking about uh uh Tiger Conway because he was a tough guy too, but Billy Jack was just had that crazy toughness.
01:18:29.279 --> 01:18:30.399
You know, he's kind of a nut.
01:18:30.479 --> 01:18:31.760
You know, he killed his wife.
01:18:31.920 --> 01:18:34.800
Yeah, yeah, I saw that episode of Dark Side of the Ring.
01:18:34.880 --> 01:18:36.640
Yeah, said it was a mercy killing.
01:18:36.720 --> 01:18:38.000
He says he was dying anyway.
01:18:38.079 --> 01:18:41.119
Let me just end her life and shot him with a shotgun or something.
01:18:41.199 --> 01:18:43.600
Now he's in jail and or you know, whatever.
01:18:43.840 --> 01:18:44.159
Yeah.
01:18:44.319 --> 01:18:54.319
Uh all right, so what we do is we at the end of our uh show, we always have what we call a rapid fire smash.
01:18:54.640 --> 01:18:58.079
So it basically they're gonna ask you some silly questions.
01:18:58.239 --> 01:19:05.520
Some of them are silly, some of them are funny and cool, and uh, and we're just uh you just answer however you want.
01:19:05.680 --> 01:19:08.159
Um, so um, do you want to go first?
01:19:08.319 --> 01:19:08.720
Yep.
01:19:08.960 --> 01:19:12.960
Alright, so do fans still ask you to blow the whistle all the time?
01:19:13.439 --> 01:19:14.880
Yes, and I do.
01:19:15.119 --> 01:19:22.399
All these conventions that I go to and wrestle cons and and uh shows that I do for like John Thorne in Cleveland.
01:19:22.479 --> 01:19:24.479
I've been going to Cleveland for five years.
01:19:24.720 --> 01:19:27.119
I'm working for this company called CCW.
01:19:27.279 --> 01:19:30.560
Yeah, I blow my whistle all the time and I I blow it for them.
01:19:32.560 --> 01:19:36.479
What is the strangest autograph request you've ever gotten?
01:19:37.359 --> 01:19:42.800
A girl asked me to, and believe me, I've never kissed this girl.
01:19:42.960 --> 01:19:44.079
I barely knew her.
01:19:44.159 --> 01:19:45.920
I've seen her a couple of times at a show.
01:19:46.000 --> 01:19:48.800
She asked me to sign her chest right here, right?
01:19:49.039 --> 01:19:49.760
So I signed it.
01:19:49.840 --> 01:19:54.880
Bill Fonzi Alfonso, pretty cool signature, got a pretty cool signature.
01:19:55.199 --> 01:20:01.279
And the next time I was in that town, the girl had it tattooed on her chest.
01:20:01.439 --> 01:20:04.960
I never kissed her, I never dated her, I never did nothing.
01:20:05.279 --> 01:20:08.399
She was just a I guess she liked Fonzi.
01:20:08.880 --> 01:20:10.560
That was actually gonna be our next question.
01:20:10.720 --> 01:20:14.479
If you ever had an autograph turned into a tattoo, so I'm gonna go.
01:20:14.880 --> 01:20:16.640
That was the girl, I couldn't believe it.
01:20:16.800 --> 01:20:19.520
I got a picture of uh on my phone of her.
01:20:19.680 --> 01:20:21.600
A real nice looking girl, too.
01:20:21.840 --> 01:20:22.720
I couldn't believe it.
01:20:23.199 --> 01:20:30.159
Nobody I tell people that story, I tell my family, my daughter, and my wife, and tell some my friends, yeah, yeah, right, Foncia.
01:20:30.399 --> 01:20:32.479
A girl got a tattoo of your name on her chest.
01:20:32.960 --> 01:20:33.840
That's true.
01:20:34.640 --> 01:20:40.399
If you were stuck on a deserted island, what three wrestlers would you want to be on the island with?
01:20:41.840 --> 01:20:44.560
Damn, uh, right now or anytime in history?
01:20:44.720 --> 01:20:45.279
Anytime in history.
01:20:45.520 --> 01:20:46.159
Anytime in history.
01:20:46.399 --> 01:20:54.800
I would happen, somebody who knew how if we were stuck on the island and we couldn't get off, I'd want somebody like a survivalist like Steve Kern.
01:20:55.039 --> 01:20:56.720
Remember Allegander Steve Kern?
01:20:57.039 --> 01:20:57.680
Yep.
01:20:58.319 --> 01:21:01.520
Crocodile Hunter or whatever, uh Steve Kern drew.
01:21:01.840 --> 01:21:06.800
Uh uh, I'd have somebody that was uh funny to entertain us.
01:21:06.880 --> 01:21:11.520
Uh I would probably have Dusty on there because he was always funny and entertaining.
01:21:11.600 --> 01:21:19.840
And I would have uh one of the girls, maybe Missy Hyde, Sonny, uh, you know, Francine, Beula, one of the girls with us.
01:21:20.239 --> 01:21:22.000
So it's your three, there's your three.
01:21:23.439 --> 01:21:28.560
Um favorite road companion of all time, John Gonzalez.
01:21:29.600 --> 01:21:29.760
Yeah.
01:21:30.159 --> 01:21:30.319
Okay.
01:21:30.479 --> 01:21:30.800
Yeah.
01:21:31.039 --> 01:21:35.039
John Gonzalez spent three years on a road every day together.
01:21:35.199 --> 01:21:37.840
Uh, and then if we weren't on a road, we were together.
01:21:38.079 --> 01:21:49.039
We got long freaking fantastic, and it was a pleasure being with one of God's gifts to the planet, you know, one of the tallest guys in the world.
01:21:49.359 --> 01:21:49.920
All right.
01:21:50.239 --> 01:21:52.640
Favorite arena you ever worked in?
01:21:53.039 --> 01:21:58.319
Madison Square Gardens, uh, the most famous, and I loved it.
01:21:58.479 --> 01:22:07.840
Of course, the famous ECW arena in Philadelphia, and uh, I did enjoy working in front of 65,000 people in the Tokyo Dome.
01:22:08.960 --> 01:22:11.119
There's so many different arenas, you know.
01:22:11.199 --> 01:22:16.319
We're going out to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Forum, which isn't there anymore.
01:22:16.479 --> 01:22:31.039
Uh, you know, I got to work some great buildings uh in my day, Miami Beach Convention Center, uh Tampa, Fort Homer, Hesterly Armory, where we ran every Tuesday night for 30 years before me and after me.
01:22:31.199 --> 01:22:37.840
Uh, but Madison Square, maybe the most famous and one of my uh favorite places.
01:22:38.079 --> 01:22:38.560
All right.
01:22:38.800 --> 01:22:42.239
What's the loudest crowd you ever experienced?
01:22:44.479 --> 01:22:54.319
Um, well, um, you would think it'd be the 65,000 people in Tokyo, but the Japanese clap, you know, they don't holler.
01:22:54.399 --> 01:22:57.600
Like I said, you know, a big movement and everybody claps.
01:22:57.840 --> 01:23:02.560
Uh ECW had a real loud crowd.
01:23:02.720 --> 01:23:08.800
You know, it was a small, small arena held a thousand people, you know, we sold it out all the time.
01:23:08.960 --> 01:23:17.760
And for those thousand people to be jammed in at the ECW arena, I think they had the most enthusiastic crowd, and uh they were the loudest.
01:23:18.560 --> 01:23:28.640
How was it the night that um Sabu returned to ECW and uh you know the lights went out, they came on, and that that big pop.
01:23:28.880 --> 01:23:32.880
I mean, would would you compare that as to one of the loudest times in ECW?
01:23:33.600 --> 01:23:40.560
Uh what I would say one of the loudest because we had quite a few lights off lights on, like Jerry Lawler.
01:23:40.640 --> 01:23:40.720
Yeah.
01:23:43.920 --> 01:23:47.439
Of course, the sabo was phenomenal, lights off lights on.
01:23:47.680 --> 01:23:52.720
Uh we had some pr pr pretty cool uh stuff like that, yeah.
01:23:54.000 --> 01:23:56.319
Best Indiana Jones movie.
01:23:58.800 --> 01:24:03.920
Um I think I've I guess maybe the first one that started off the franchise.
01:24:04.000 --> 01:24:06.159
They had multi multiple ones, right?
01:24:06.479 --> 01:24:06.880
Yeah.
01:24:07.119 --> 01:24:07.439
Yeah.
01:24:07.600 --> 01:24:08.159
All right.
01:24:08.640 --> 01:24:10.880
Who is the best James Bond?
01:24:12.880 --> 01:24:18.159
Um damn the original uh damn I um I said his name yesterday.
01:24:18.399 --> 01:24:19.359
Sean Connery.
01:24:19.520 --> 01:24:20.640
Um who?
01:24:21.279 --> 01:24:22.800
Sean Connery was the original.
01:24:22.880 --> 01:24:23.920
Yeah, Sean Connery, yeah.
01:24:24.319 --> 01:24:28.560
Drove that 1964 Maserati, whatever that was.
01:24:28.720 --> 01:24:34.319
I think I it wasn't a Maserati, it was something, but uh love that, yeah.
01:24:34.720 --> 01:24:38.159
And of course all the other ones were great, but you know, the original.
01:24:39.199 --> 01:24:43.359
Now we've asked you well, we've asked everybody this.
01:24:43.600 --> 01:24:47.840
Uh and now this is the question, and he says there is a right answer to this.
01:24:48.079 --> 01:24:50.640
There is absolutely a right answer to this question.
01:24:50.800 --> 01:24:53.680
Does pineapple belong in a pizza?
01:24:54.960 --> 01:24:58.960
Well, I guess it depends what part of the world you're in.
01:24:59.039 --> 01:25:07.840
And I've had pineapple on my pizza and have enjoyed it, but I do not regularly order uh pineapple on my pizza.
01:25:08.000 --> 01:25:17.760
I'm a pepperoni guy, I'm a double cheese guy, but I have eaten pineapple on my pizza, and people love it, and but you don't hear about it all the time.
01:25:17.920 --> 01:25:28.079
It's not a, you know, I've been a you know, a thousand, ordered a thousand pizzas with different people in their homes, and uh, and hardly anybody orders pineapple.
01:25:28.399 --> 01:25:29.439
So I consider this a pie.
01:25:29.920 --> 01:25:31.600
I'm gonna call it we're gonna call that a draw.
01:25:31.680 --> 01:25:32.960
Yeah, break down that's a draw.
01:25:33.279 --> 01:25:34.880
Right down the middle from Fonzie.
01:25:35.039 --> 01:25:35.680
Yeah, right down the middle.
01:25:38.880 --> 01:25:40.399
He called it right down the middle.
01:25:40.800 --> 01:25:42.239
Right down the middle.
01:25:42.640 --> 01:25:58.560
Um, real quick, um, and I usually don't do this, but on your screen, uh, I see uh um uh a picture frame, digital picture frame, and every once in a while I see uh uh um Ox Baker on it.
01:25:58.720 --> 01:26:00.399
Uh uh Did you know Ox?
01:26:00.560 --> 01:26:13.840
I have a friend named Mark Lucia uh in Connecticut who uh because Ox lived in Brooklyn, Connecticut, and my friend Mark would have breakfast with him almost every morning for a long time before Ox passed away.
01:26:14.079 --> 01:26:16.239
What's your memories of Ox Baker?
01:26:17.840 --> 01:27:00.079
Being quite the scary character, and I really didn't know I was young when I broke in, you know, I was in my early 20s and working for Florida Championship Wrestling, and Ox was one of the people that they would bring in occasionally, like, you know, they bring in a world champion for the week, they bring in Andre for the week, they bring in the Moolah for the week, they bring in a minute, they bring in a character like Abdullah the Butcher, and then they'd bring in Ox Baker as a character to work the loop with the the big baby face, and and uh you don't know if he was a shooter, you know, back then people believed the people wanted to believe the business was a shoot, and you didn't know.
01:27:00.239 --> 01:27:03.359
Say, damn, is wrestling real or is it a work?
01:27:03.439 --> 01:27:05.199
You know, now it's sports entertainment.
01:27:05.680 --> 01:27:09.920
Pinch turk took the word wrestling, this worldwide entertainment.
01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:12.560
It's not worldwide wrestling anymore.
01:27:12.800 --> 01:27:18.159
Uh, but Oxbaker with that great heart punch, and he wasn't that great of a worker, you know.
01:27:18.319 --> 01:27:27.600
He wasn't uh doing, he just did big man stuff, and and he was a pretty big cat, but he was a little scary, but uh basically a pretty good guy.
01:27:28.079 --> 01:27:28.560
Pretty good guy.
01:27:28.800 --> 01:27:29.359
I heard that.
01:27:29.439 --> 01:27:41.680
And I worked around the scariness and worked around being up, you know, after I got to know him for a while and being one of the characters, uh, we got along pretty good, and he was pleasant, educated, smart, nice guy.
01:27:41.840 --> 01:27:42.479
Yeah.
01:27:43.359 --> 01:27:47.039
Yeah, I always liked his eyebrows and his facial hair was always just crazy.
01:27:47.840 --> 01:27:48.479
Crazy, you know.
01:27:48.640 --> 01:27:49.039
Yes.
01:27:49.199 --> 01:27:49.439
Yeah.
01:27:49.680 --> 01:27:51.359
He had quite the look, didn't he?
01:27:51.600 --> 01:27:51.920
He did.
01:27:52.079 --> 01:27:52.399
He did.
01:27:52.560 --> 01:27:53.119
He did.
01:27:53.359 --> 01:27:53.920
Yeah.
01:27:54.079 --> 01:27:56.800
Um, and that is gonna do it for us.
01:27:56.960 --> 01:27:57.359
Yes.
01:27:57.520 --> 01:28:00.479
I we want to thank our guest, Bill Alfonso.
01:28:00.960 --> 01:28:02.000
Appreciate it.
01:28:02.159 --> 01:28:04.960
This this was an awesome, awesome time.
01:28:05.520 --> 01:28:07.039
And uh thank you, Bill.
01:28:07.119 --> 01:28:08.079
Thanks for coming on.
01:28:08.239 --> 01:28:09.119
Thank you, Bill.
01:28:09.680 --> 01:28:22.399
Hey, I I really appreciate uh being one of the uh first couple guys as uh you asked to be on your podcast, and I have nothing but uh good feelings about you guys.
01:28:22.560 --> 01:28:24.319
I love the studio look.
01:28:24.640 --> 01:28:28.479
Uh, you guys both love the business as much as I do or more.
01:28:29.039 --> 01:28:31.520
So that's why I think you guys are gonna be successful.
01:28:31.680 --> 01:28:38.079
And uh so congratulations on starting back uh with your podcast, guys.
01:28:38.399 --> 01:28:38.800
Thank you.
01:28:38.960 --> 01:28:39.199
Thank you.
01:28:41.520 --> 01:28:43.840
For Johnny O and Josh O.
01:28:44.239 --> 01:28:44.560
Goodbye.
01:28:49.680 --> 01:28:51.279
Goodbye, everybody.
01:29:50.319 --> 01:29:51.840
Old Town Barbershop.
01:29:52.800 --> 01:29:55.279
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01:29:55.520 --> 01:29:58.640
Stop by Old Town Barbershop in Summers, Connecticut.
01:29:58.800 --> 01:30:04.239
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01:30:04.640 --> 01:30:05.680
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01:30:09.600 --> 01:30:14.880
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01:30:15.119 --> 01:30:17.439
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01:30:17.600 --> 01:30:19.520
Come on in and get cleaned up.
01:30:19.680 --> 01:30:24.560
And don't forget to tell them that Double Axe handle smash podcast session.
00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:39.600
Welcome everybody to double X Handle Smash.
00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:42.960
I'm Johnny O, and this is Josh O.
00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:50.719
Together we are the O's, and we are here back on the show.
00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:58.799
Back on the show with our returning guest, our returning champion, the manager of champions, Mr.
00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:01.119
Bill Alfonso.
00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.040
Hey boys, it's great to be on your show, man.
00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:06.879
I'm super excited for you guys.
00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:11.359
Start back with your uh great uh uh podcast, man.
00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:15.599
I know you guys have got a lot of superstars lined up, including me.
00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.000
Well, thank you for joining us.
00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:21.200
Uh I absolutely adore your office.
00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:27.280
Uh that is such an awesome visual to have like right in front of us right now.
00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:30.079
So that's so yeah, that's fantastic.
00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:30.640
I love that.
00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:31.519
Well, how'd you get it?
00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:35.840
Did you get the air same person that airbrushes uh RVD's tights?
00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:38.959
No, for for which one?
00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:40.560
For your the front of your desk.
00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:41.760
The front of your desk.
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.959
Oh no, no, that was a that was a uh uh uh WrestleCon that I was on.
00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:47.840
Oh, okay.
00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:51.280
All right, yeah, it looked like it looked um it looks great.
00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:52.640
It looks fantastic.
00:01:52.879 --> 00:02:13.520
Yeah, for our for our podcast listeners, uh right now Bill is set up in his office um and the front of his desk, it's the old school ECW brick with him coming out of it, and it is awesome and whatnot, and we can see merch in the background.
00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:21.680
So that for our podcast listeners, uh yes, please listen to us on the podcast, but also go ahead and check out our YouTube.
00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:27.039
Bill, what what kind of what kind of m memorabilia do you got uh with you?
00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:35.360
You you've uh been in the wrestling business for for what over 30 years or uh this is my 45th year.
00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:35.919
Wow.
00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:36.879
Wow, wow.
00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:44.080
If you can believe it, I started full-time in 1980 and uh still working almost every weekend this weekend.
00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:50.319
In fact, this weekend I have a show for a company called CCW Coastal Temperature Wrestling, they're big in Florida.
00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:57.680
They run over a hundred shows a year in the state of Florida and Tennessee, and I'm in uh it's around West Palm Beach Port St.
00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:02.639
Lucie having a big uh big fiasco uh double cage match this weekend.
00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:04.800
I'm involved in all that stuff.
00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:07.919
So um what kind of memorabilia do I got?
00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:19.039
I got a ton of classic pictures, uh, tons of magazines, uh um some just some really cool pictures is what is what I uh uh like.
00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:20.400
And I got a few belts.
00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:27.840
I got a belt that uh the NWA uh belt that Harley Race had and Ric Flair had before they changed it.
00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:37.120
When I went to uh Tokyo in '91 with WCW, they had that new belt, but I got the old one that Harley Race gave me.
00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:39.919
Somebody that's awesome.
00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:43.680
Somebody had it made for him.
00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:47.280
And that's the belt that I'm holding up with uh over Flair right there.
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:48.000
Can you see that okay?
00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:49.120
Yep, yep.
00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:49.919
Yeah.
00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:58.000
And uh so somebody uh made it for Harley Race, and I've refereed so many of Harley Race's matches here in Florida.
00:03:58.159 --> 00:03:59.520
Harley Race gave it to me.
00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:00.080
Look at that.
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.639
I mean this belt for maybe now as well.
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:05.919
Wow.
00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:12.000
But you know, something special that uh, you know, Harley Race gave it to me, you know?
00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:13.120
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:15.520
I was a big huge fan, or both of us.
00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:17.839
Well huge fans of Harley Race and Terry Funk.
00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:20.879
Yeah, actually, that perfect first question.
00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.360
Uh, memories of Harley Race.
00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:25.199
Wow.
00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:29.120
What a uh uh what a legend in the business.
00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:31.040
Real tough guy.
00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:39.759
Um you know he goes back to the 60s and 70s and 80s and all the way up to the 90s, wasn't he, in uh WWF back in the day.
00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:43.120
He managed Vader in in WCW.
00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:48.240
He was he was still taking bumps in like the mid-90s.
00:04:49.600 --> 00:05:04.639
Yes, yeah, and he could go, and uh he had that belt all over the world for a while, and uh he used to come into Florida for several times a year and defend it against you know Dusty or Merrick Wyndham or whoever, you know.
00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:07.279
Uh so I got to ride with him a lot.
00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:28.079
It was my job as a referee for working for Jampship Wrestling from Florida to pick up, you know, guys like that would come in for the week, like Andre the Giant would come in for the week, do the loop, Moolin would come in for the week, the Midget would come in for the week, Abbey would come in for the week, World Champion come in for the any specialty item uh that we brought into the territory.
00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:29.759
That's how it was back then.
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:35.680
Uh it was uh uh my job to pick these guys up and take them for the loop for the week.
00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:46.160
Monday night, West Palm, Tampa, Tuesday, Miami, Wednesday, Thursday, Jacksonville, Friday and Saturday with spot shows in Sunday, Orlando repeat itself week after week.
00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:55.040
I don't know how we drew three to five to six to ten thousand people every freaking week on these, you know, back in the day.
00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:56.480
It was crazy.
00:05:57.519 --> 00:05:58.959
Sounds amazing.
00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:02.319
Um, do you have any stories of like Harley race?
00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:06.319
Like when you first met Harley, did you uh where was it?
00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:07.279
When was it?
00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:09.199
Uh do you remember the first meeting?
00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:12.800
Do you do you were you guys did you guys hit it off instantly?
00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:15.680
Yeah, for some reason I hit it off.
00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:25.120
Um I was a little starstruck because I grew up watching wrestling, you know, and here I am working with these superstars, you know what I mean?
00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:32.160
Uh but then he's just a he's a regular guy, but and and badass, so you have any badass Harley stories?
00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.160
Um he was a drinker.
00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:42.079
He was a drinker, so we'd uh uh he'd always like a big car, like a Cadillac.
00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:53.759
We'd read a Cadillac or a Lincoln, and I would be driving, of course, and he would uh you know buy a case of beer, just kind of like Andre and drink a case of beer on the way back from Miami, pretty cool.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.879
Uh and he liked to haul ass too, man.
00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:00.399
He had me driving 90 to 100 miles an hour.
00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:02.399
Uh it was crazy.
00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:12.240
Just being in the ring with him and doing the 60-minute Broadway, 60-minute time limits against Barry Windham or you know, guys like that, or Jack Briscoe.
00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:16.800
Uh, those were 60 minutes is a long time to be in the ring, man.
00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:19.519
Especially in the Florida heat.
00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:26.560
Yes, but we were mostly in air-conditioned buildings, but some of them were not uh back in the day.
00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.920
And I told Harley, he said, Harley, man, 60 minutes is a long time.
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.560
He said, Bonzi, here's what I do sometimes, and I want you to do the same thing.
00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:37.920
Uh, it'll make you it'll make the 60 minutes go by quick.
00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.959
Have four 15-minute matches in your head.
00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:42.079
Okay.
00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:54.079
And, you know, work a 15-minute match, boom, and can't do a false minute or whatever, and then go into the next 15 minutes, next 15 minutes, next 15 minutes, before you know it, you went through an hour.
00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.360
And it made sense and made my life a lot easier for some reason.
00:07:57.519 --> 00:07:59.600
Psychologically, I guess.
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:01.519
Do you do you remember a story?
00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:15.839
I remember my favorite Harley story is I uh I was I remember hearing, I don't know who was saying this, but Harley was in the locker room discussing a match with somebody, and he was like, What's your finish?
00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:23.199
And he was telling him he does this really cool thing off the top rope, and he goes down, and Harley's like, I'll move.
00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:28.560
Just thought it was funny.
00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:29.839
You ever heard that one?
00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:31.360
Yeah, probably.
00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:32.159
Yeah.
00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:35.279
Yeah, and Harley racing that big dying headbutt too.
00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:37.840
That was pretty cool for yeah.
00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:42.480
I think as he got older, he didn't want to take anybody's top rope or second rope finish at all.
00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:47.360
Like uh how about uh Terry Funk?
00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:52.399
Uh that's another guy that I I I would really love to hear some stories about Terry Funk.
00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:54.159
He did a lot for ECW.
00:08:54.720 --> 00:09:03.600
Um here's a picture of uh I'm pretty sure this is in uh ECW.
00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:04.639
It's uh Dr.
00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:13.519
Dennis Steve Williams, Terry Funk and Bonzi, uh after a big melee in the ring and everybody's got juice and stuff.
00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:15.120
Uh Jerry was great.
00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:26.159
In fact, he was one of the first professional matches that um um I refereed in 19.
00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:31.519
I was trying to break into business in 1970, late, 78, and early 79.
00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:49.519
I went out to Texas to try to break in with one of my best friends, the Cuban assassin, Dave Sierra, uh Rocky Johnson, the Rock's dad, and King Curtis, and uh the Cuban out to uh um Texas, to Dallas, which there were four territories in Texas.
00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:51.279
Uh we talked about it the other day.
00:09:51.440 --> 00:10:04.320
Joe Joe Blanchard, Telly Blanchard's dad ran San Antonio or in Corpus Christi, Southern Texas, and uh Paul Boss only ran Houston, and one of the better payoff guys in the business, everybody says.
00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:12.320
And the Von Erickson course had Dallas in that area, and then the Funks had Amarillo and Lumping, you know, northern Texas and stuff.
00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:24.320
So one of the first matches I refereed, I went out there, and uh, but they had all their referees already had Rocco Lubitz, David Manny, who was a big time referee back in the day.
00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.000
Uh so it was hard for me to get a spot there, full-time spot.
00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:38.399
So I only worked a few times, and one of my first matches I refereed was Terry Funk in a chain match against Sabu's uncle, the Sheik, the original Sheik, Eddie Farhat.
00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:58.639
Uh, that's why Sabu and I get along so good, because I told him the story during the chain match, everybody was all juiced up, and and uh uh uh the sheik pulled out a pencil and stabbed the referee, which was me, and he stabbed me right here in the arm, and it broke my skin, and the lead went in my arm, but I still got the lead mark in me.
00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:02.159
It was like a tattoo, you know, it's like paper lead.
00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:08.399
Yeah, and I showed him that told him the story when I got along like this after me telling him that story.
00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:10.480
Yeah, you earned his respect.
00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:15.039
Yes, yeah, that was 1979.
00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:17.759
79, wow.
00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:22.720
And Lubbock, it's either Lubbock or Amarillo, one of the two cities.
00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:27.759
I can't remember exactly which one has been so long ago, but Terry was great, man.
00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:29.759
Uh, what a trail place.
00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:40.240
Or he changed the business, he adapted, you know, when he started in the 60s with his brother, Dory Funk, the tag team champions, and they both had the World Championship belt.
00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:55.600
Uh, and then as time went by, he adapted to the season, you know, he adapted to the to the new wrestling, you know, and to WCW and uh, you know, and all that stuff and became uh still relevant to this day.
00:11:55.840 --> 00:12:10.000
You mentioned Terry Punk, he's you know, he's a he's one of our legends, and he really helped us out for him and puts him over all the time, and saying he was one of the uh instrumental guys that got us over ECW.
00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:13.840
Yeah, very selfless man, you know, very selfless.
00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:20.639
He just really did a lot and gave a lot for ECW and and for everybody.
00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:22.559
Sorry, we lost him.
00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:28.240
Uh I got to work with all those guys in that era like Wild McDaniel and Dusty.
00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:49.679
And uh when I started full-time for Florida Championship Wrestling, um the here's I'm gonna name a few guys that were just finishing up their 25-year career, like Bobo Brazil, had a couple years left, and I got to work with Bobo Brazil and Ernie the Cat Lad and The Chic and a couple of those guys, those big names, that era.
00:12:50.000 --> 00:13:01.440
Then the next era was Dusty and Dick Burdox and you know uh Valentine and all those guys, and the next era was uh I guess uh Barry Wyndham and those guys.
00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:04.879
That's where I come in uh in the 80s.
00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:09.360
So I've been through quite a different uh batch of uh superstars.
00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:13.600
Hey, what was your what was your favorite Terry Funk retirement?
00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:18.240
I'm sure you've been around for more than one Terry Funk retirement tour.
00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:21.360
Yeah, here's a poster.
00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:23.600
Uh I'll show it to you guys.
00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:24.960
Here's a poster.
00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.159
50 years of the funk, funk fest.
00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:28.559
Wow.
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:30.879
I think this this was an Amarillo.
00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:32.480
Was that the one refought Brad Hart?
00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:34.080
Yep, that's the Bret Hart one.
00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:34.399
Yep.
00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:35.360
And Man Can't Break.
00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:49.120
Bret Hart, uh, Sabu against Cactus Jack, Jack the Snake, August uh Muda, Van Damp, uh, of course, uh um Dory Jr., the bushwhackers, and a lot of a lot of stars on that.
00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:51.519
And I was with Sabu in that match.
00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:52.879
Wow.
00:13:53.039 --> 00:13:53.440
Nice.
00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:55.200
So pretty cool.
00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:57.200
This these things mean a lot to me.
00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:10.320
I try to grab them when I'm if I'm on a big show like WrestleMania 9 or something, I'll keep my memorabilia and uh or uh when I went to Tokyo.
00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:17.360
Um and refereed the flair Fujanaki match.
00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.519
And the Giant Gonzalez called somebody.
00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:26.080
I forgot who it might have been uh, what's the black guy's name?
00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:31.440
Uh uh anyway, giant Gonzalez had a match.
00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:40.240
And you know, in in Japan, there's like 25 photographers at ringside leaning against the ring, taking pictures during the matches.
00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:41.440
This is pretty cool.
00:14:41.919 --> 00:15:01.840
So after Giant Gonzalez beat his opponent, um I jumped up to get his hand up, and I jumped up on the second rope and got his hand up, and the photographers thought it was a great picture, and every photographer started taking pictures, and they made the cover of the largest sports magazine in Japan.
00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:02.480
Nice!
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:03.600
That's awesome.
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:08.879
I mean, Gonzalez was I was his personal assistant for three years, which was pretty cool.
00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:09.679
Yeah.
00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:36.320
So there's a story I want to ask you about, and I know you you've talked about this many, many times, but so you are the referee in one of the most infamous moments, the cage match between Bruiser Brody and Lex Luger, when Brody just stops cooperating with a rookie Lex Luger, and Brody was a legit bad.
00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:37.440
Yes.
00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:39.200
Wow.
00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:41.679
Is that you with hair?
00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:47.360
I was young, I was in my early 20s, brother.
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.840
This was the early 80s, you know?
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:50.080
Oh.
00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:59.919
So I've heard Luger talk about this, that he had no idea what what to do.
00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:11.279
So he just kind of shoves you, gets disqualified, and I've seen the video where he just then goes and he goes right up over the cage and runs to the back to the locker room.
00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.639
Can you tell us what I imagine it never happened?
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:15.840
It was a bad booking.
00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:29.039
Luger was very green and just breaking the business, and he had that phenomenal body and the office, and here Hiro Basuda was a big star back in the day, and he owned part of Jefferson Rescue from Florida.
00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:35.759
He trained legs Luger, and and they were hand-picking his opponents uh and putting them over.
00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:41.279
And you know, uh, uh, you know, Luger wasn't a fantastic worker.
00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:42.399
Uh he was okay.
00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:49.279
He got by, and he he learned as he he got better as as time went by, but at that time he was still green as grass.
00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:59.919
And that man should have, they should have never put temperamental superstar, Bruce of Roti, who's one of the biggest stars in the business, a big star in Japan.
00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:07.119
And, you know, he came in for the weekend at the loop and stuff, and they thought it'd be a good idea to put him in there with Lex Luger.
00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:13.200
And um they put him in there, and then uh I'm not sure if they talked before the match at all.
00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:25.440
I don't think they did, because back then the heels and baby faces got dressed in two different dressing rooms, and now they got messages back to and forth to each other was through me and through a referee, you know.
00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.039
Uh the the guys wouldn't see each other until they got in the ring.
00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:34.079
And you can call the match in the ring back then, you know, it was common practice.
00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:47.200
Uh so they I I don't think they saw each other too much before the match, and then Luger got in there with it, you know, they lacked up the cage and did the intros and the bell rung, and and uh Luger didn't know what to do.
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:50.799
And Bruce and Brody said, Who is this young fucking kid?
00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:51.680
You know?
00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:58.720
Uh and not that Luger um um Brody was gonna take advantage of him or anything.
00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:10.160
He would have worked with him, but Luger did listen to him, and and uh and anyway, uh Brody wouldn't sell for him, and and finally Luger says, Fonzi, what'd I do?
00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:11.119
What'd I do?
00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:12.240
He was freaking out.
00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:16.640
It only went five or six minutes, you know, until Luger figured out.
00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:22.319
Uh all he had to do was really listen to Brody, but I think he just freaked out.
00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:26.160
And uh rightfully so, you know, he's green as grass.
00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:28.319
Uh I said, what should I do?
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:40.559
I said, well, if you want to grab me, the referee, and throw me against the cage, I'd DQ you and the match would be over, you know, it'd be the shit finish, but that's exactly what happened.
00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.279
And uh Lugu grabbed me, threw me against the gates.
00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.400
I sold for a second, rang the bell, disqualified.
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:51.200
Lugar got Brody's stand up and Luger climbed the gate and it split, man.
00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:53.519
He was really freaked out.
00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:54.000
Yeah.
00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:57.039
Bruiser Brody was a very imposing figure.
00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:02.480
Yeah, if I thought Brody was mad at me, uh I I I wouldn't even climb over the cage.
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:04.960
I would have just gone through that fucking thing.
00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:05.519
Okay.
00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:09.119
You it would have been like a Looney Tunes cartoon.
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:17.759
You would have just seen the imprint of my body through the cage, and you would have seen a plume of smoke as I ran out of that building.
00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:21.759
How'd you feel about Bruiser Brody as a person?
00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.480
Like, I mean, talking to him, and he was a real nice guy.
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:25.519
I liked him.
00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:26.240
I liked him.
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:27.359
I thought it was great.
00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:34.640
Uh I didn't get to work with him that much, only a few times, because you know, he spent the majority of his time in Japan.
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.200
Uh but he'd come into Florida.
00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:43.359
Florida attracted every superstar in the country uh in the world came through here.
00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:53.279
Mill Mascaris and, you know, Harley Race and the Briscoes and uh uh Bruiser Brody, every, you know, Abdullah butcher, so everybody came through here.
00:19:53.440 --> 00:20:00.079
So um I didn't get a chance to work with them a lot, but I worked with them, you know, on occasions and I liked them.
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:01.440
I got along with everybody.
00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:06.799
And remember, it was my job to pick up these guys and take them around the territory for the week.
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:17.759
Like Abdullah and, you know, and the champion Moolah, which I mentioned earlier, the midgets would come in for the week, and I would have the midgets in my car driving them around, which is pretty cool, you know.
00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:26.799
Uh, back then when you did the match with Brody and Luger, uh, I just want to talk about the evolution of uh how a referee is from then to now.
00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:31.200
Uh back then, did you guys wear the earpieces then or did you have those yet?
00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.240
There was no pieces, earpieces in the 80s, no.
00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:38.720
So you would communicate probably for somebody at ringside if somebody had to tell you something then?
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:41.200
Well changing.
00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:42.000
So it's an update.
00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.640
I mean, the the match is starting.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:54.319
I mean, it's up to the two wrestlers in the ring to, you know, if they had like a 20-minute time limit, they would get their job done in the 20 minutes and and and finish the match.
00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:02.799
Uh but stuff on the fly, like they're directing us, tell us maybe during TV when we were taping TV was a little more intricate.
00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:03.039
Yeah.
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:11.599
But they didn't have a headpieces back in the 80s that for TV, they just had some guy come out and, you know, then give us a signal and go home or something.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.480
But TV matches were short anyway.
00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:15.119
You know.
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:48.559
Do you remember a time refereeing at all where you were, you know, things were had to be improvised in the ring and uh the finish was changed, and did you have to uh relay that to them, or did they already kind of uh take that, make that decision on their own, or well, if something wasn't going right, if somebody got hurt, they'd have to cut the match short and go home, that happened several times, or somebody get busted open, or broke an arm, or something where somebody really got hurt and they had to change the finish, or but they would change it in a way what nobody knew but us.
00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:48.880
Right.
00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:50.240
Yeah, right.
00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:51.200
Yeah.
00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:59.759
Um I talked to you yesterday a little bit on the phone, uh, discussing this interview, uh, and I was gonna ask.
00:22:00.559 --> 00:23:56.160
you uh your memories of going to hawaii and working for the uh uh my um my Avia family um the how how uh you want to talk about that and I was in Florida refereeing Florida Championship Wrestling I met everybody in there and and uh Mark Lewin the Purple Hays uh was a big star he's just turned uh either 79 or I think he just turned 79 uh recently he's still alive and Liz in Hawaii anyway they um they were running a big show at Aloha Stadium and Mark Lewin and Kevin Sullivan were on the show and kind of helping put the show together with Rocky Johnson and and uh The Rock's mom Peter Babia's uh daughter uh at Aloha Stadium and they filmed half the stadium and uh they asked me if I wanted to come out for a free and I said uh hell yeah of course I did and that was you know my first time in Hawaii and my first time uh um kind of even it's almost like leaving the country you know what I mean it's a you know a 12-hour flight and this swaying the hell away but I really enjoyed it so that was my first time but after that after going to Japan a few times I would uh you would stop in Hawaii sometimes and take a five day vacation because you're coming back with a good payday like I made excellent money when I went there in 91 uh and referee to Fujinami Rick Flair man 65,000 people at the Tokyo Dome so I got a good payday so and plus they pay for your hotel and the airfare and food and all that so I stopped in Hawaii on the way back and spent a week there it was pretty cool with King Curtis and Mark Lewin and those guys.
00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:23.279
Did you meet a young uh Dwayne Johnson while you're in Hawaii well no I met him in Florida because I remember I started in 1980 and Rocky Johnson was in and out of the territory for several years and um the Rock was just a little kid maybe six or seven, eight years old and he was in the dressing room doing handstands, walking out his hands and stuff.
00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:24.400
It was pretty cool.
00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:45.680
I remember that when I met him when we did some crossover with ECW and WWE back uh I guess in the 2000s or something we tried to and I seen the rock and we talked for a minute and he said I do remember you Ponzi you were a referee with my dad back in Florida so we hit it off pretty cool.
00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:48.559
I got I never got to work with him though.
00:24:49.359 --> 00:25:12.799
As he became the Rock and one of the biggest stars in the business you know now he's huge doing movies for Disney to sign like a$200 million deal with Disney so after Florida did you go directly to the Crockett territory no I went to um can you guys hear me okay?
00:25:12.960 --> 00:26:02.799
Yep hear you perfectly when I started 1980 with Florida and you know who Tommy Young is oh absolutely the the the sliding referee he was a big big time referee one of the main referees uh in uh Mid-Atlantic for Jim Crockett and they exchanged uh I guess it was 81 or 82 that they sent me uh to Mid-Atlantic and they brought Tommy to Championship Wrestling from Florida and they exchanged us for a while was just temporarily to get the heat off because back in the day the referees would get a lot of heat you know the he who would put his foot on the rope or use a brass knuckles and the referee doesn't see it I'd walk out and get more booze than some of the heels people hating me sometimes because I their guy didn't win.
00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:41.039
So anyway they they exchanged us and that's when I went to Mid Atlantic and worked for the Crockets uh uh back in the early 80s but I went from Florida tempership wrestling until the territories closed and then I went right to TBS Okay so you're there when the Crockets have to sell to Ted Turner right that was way that was I was still in Florida temperature wrestling okay uh and that happened I guess in the late 80s or the early 90s then 88 is is the year they sold.
00:26:41.279 --> 00:27:53.680
Yeah yeah I was in Florida okay and then and then and the territories were closing up you know the WCW was taking over and WWF was you know they were more mainstream and and the smaller territories or the big territories like Florida Tennessee Mid Atlantic Oregon Texas all these territories Kansas City uh Minnesota all these territories were closing up and just there was a market for the big two you know we went nationwide and stuff and I was lucky enough that uh Dusty was in charge uh in the early 90s for WCW and I worked for Dusty several years here in Florida and then he brought me in to do that Fujinami Ric Flair match and then after that match they he hired me full time in WCW I guess late 91 right after the Flair Fujinami match in Tokyo he he on the way on the way back said Vonji it's gonna happen for you baby and then get a phone call from JJ Dillon says Dusty wants to know when you can start I said anytime so I started right away and was there almost three years before I went to uh WWF.
00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:58.160
So that's actually a perfect segue do you have any good Dusty Roads stories?
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.880
I was just gonna say that as well where you read my mind.
00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:03.519
We didn't even have that written that's great.
00:28:04.559 --> 00:30:09.680
The American dream uh yeah I love Dusty man uh Dusty was almost like a father figure to me and he really taught me the business in fact uh um I'd meet him you know the show starts at eight at eight o'clock and Dusty wanted to be there exactly you know 6 45 7 o'clock at the latest and remember I told you the hills and the baby faces would get dressed in two different dressing rooms and we never see each other so I'd meet Dusty at seven at seven o'clock and he'd give me the the line up the list of the matches uh who's going over who's and and I would carry over to the hill side and tell the guys uh so one day I was late it was sold out there was a line real long line uh to get in that this was in Orlando and I was late I got there about 715 and Dusty said why are you late I said oh man the place is sold out there was a line I had to wait in line to get in with my car and stuff he said we'll leave early I was never late again now I'd rather be two hours early than five minutes late he taught me that and I was never late again and Dusty taught me to finish he was very intricate you know and I'd have to learn all these finishes and and carry them over from once from the baby face to the hillside uh uh Dusty was great uh uh uh um and he was over he was a big superstar here in Florida big nationwide superstar in fact let's see uh we talked about this show today I told you I would tell you a little more about it um holidays were big um big uh uh events for us like Thanksgiving would be at the Lakeland Civic Center with a big show you know after everybody eat their turkey at 8 o'clock at night the bell rings and there's a huge match sold out so Christmas night December 25th I forgot what year it was in the mid-80s it was Dusty against Kevin Sullivan and the loser leaftown and the Bayfront center in St.
00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:11.200
Petersburg Tampa St.
00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:32.880
Pete Tampa Bay uh and then of course it was sold out and it was Dusty in the cage with Kevin Sullivan lose the leaftown on Christmas night and then the matches started and there was Santa Claus's walk around full Santa Claus gear you know with a big bag handing out presents and candy to the kids and shit.
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:48.559
So they got the match going and all of a sudden one of the Santa Clauses jumps the rail and hands uh Kevin Sullivan a pair of brass knuckles and he hits Dusty down Dusty goes and he pins him one, two three nobody could believe it.
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:58.160
Dusty has to leave town now you know lose to leave town and then the camera followed the um Santa Claus back and it would end up being Jake the snake.
00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:05.440
No you know so that was some type of angle and then of course Dusty came back as a Midnight Rider and did that for about a year.
00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:07.599
I love the Midnight Rider storyline.
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:11.599
Yeah I loved because he because he did it again in WCW too.
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:40.160
It's awesome hey how was um like as far as approachable guys uh uh backstage and as a fan so like say if another wrestler wanted to talk to Dusty how approachable was Dusty how approachable was Ric Flair and how approachable was someone like Barry Wyndham for the wrestlers and for someone like a fan you know looking for their attention or something but both both sides.
00:31:40.400 --> 00:34:16.079
Well the boys the wrestlers uh approachable we're we're a family you know we're working 300 back then we were working 350 days a year basically in Florida so we were together almost every night we're we were like a damn family so everybody was approachable and uh and uh uh as far as the fans I mean like easy to talk to like like was Dusty approachable like he was in a management role uh booking and stuff would would you would would it be able to uh approach him easy to talk to him or what did he also close himself out relatively it was relatively easy because Dusty did his job and you know uh as long as it didn't interfere with any work uh yeah Dusty was very approachable and I remember after the matches we would have after parties and go to the bars or you know and uh all hang out there be 20 wrestlers in the bar there's a place called an imperial room on Tuesday nights and all the boys would go yeah Dusty was very approachable everybody was basically uh unless somebody had a bad night or something but you know the assos don't last long in the business you know gotta be pretty cool pretty stable uh and well like to be have a long career can't be a dick in the business yeah um as okay as far as matches you've refereed what do you think your top four matches that you've refereed what are your favorite ones that you did well of course I'm gonna mention the Ric Flair uh Fujinami match in front of 65,000 people at the Tokyo Dome that was pretty impressive and they had a hell of a match uh I have to mention my WrestleMania match even though it wasn't the match of the year it was Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez but it was on WrestleMania you know big stars and I was a referee that match um and several of the matches uh um Harley Race and Barry Windham uh Terry Funkin' the chic there's been so many man Kevin Sullivan and Dusty uh Jake the Snake and uh man it was just so many uh I was on the first Monday night raw and I think the first or second or third week it was uh Marty Gennetty against um his old partner Shawn Michaels and they switched the belts yeah I remember you in that yes yep yeah Curry Henney came out Mr.
00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:30.719
Perfect and threw the towel that uh uh Shawn Michaels and Sean showed the towel very and uh Marty Gennetti pinned up one the belt it's pretty cool I got a picture of that somewhere I've watched that match so many times as a kid and I I wore that one out on the tape.
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:55.119
Yep yeah that was 1993 yeah yep Marty Ginetti is very very uh underrated yeah he was a working fool he he just had some recent health problems and going through some health problems but um I think he's doing pretty damn good so far yeah I reached out to him and he actually wrote me back thank you so that was that was really cool.
00:34:55.360 --> 00:39:33.280
Yeah he was a hell of a guy um so so we touched on him a little earlier memories of Brian Pillman well when I went to he came to Florida and worked with us a little bit here and then uh WCW uh he was a big star and a tough guy too and a good looking kid and he can work his ass off but he had some injuries playing you know I think he played for the Bingos in San Diego Bangos didn't he for I think he was in the CFL as well yeah yeah he was a little bit beat up when he got into the business but had a hell of a body great guy the women loved him the promoters liked him he was an attraction he can work his ass off uh best mullet in the business yeah he he did have one of the best mullets in wrestling history yeah yeah he had a great look he was a good looking kid man and uh he would dress fucking like a superstar and they treated him like a superstar women were standing in line to hang out with him um okay so last you know when we were just talking I asked you a question about being your uh what your favorite referee matches are you mentioned Undertaker versus Giant Gonzales the Giant Gonzalez let's talk about him we talked about it a few years ago when you were on before but I want to refresh some fans' memories here if they're not what if they're watching for the first time um he was legit 7 foot seven inches right yeah the Bible man's eight foot but he was legitimately seven seven boy he was playing European basketball and was a big star in Europe he was seven seven and the athlete playing basketball he was really good plus he was tall as hell so one of the scouts for Ted Turner you know Ted Turner owns a CNN the Atlanta Braves a Hawks or WCW owns everything in Atlanta uh we just lost Ted Turner this year I think um he brought they brought him in to play for the Atlanta Hawks but he couldn't pass inspection his knees were starting to bother him so he couldn't play he could probably play 10 minutes of hardcore NBA ball but that wasn't good enough so they um uh they brought him in to play for the Hawks and Turner told him hey don't worry you can't play for the Hawks but I own this wrestling company we'll make you a wrestler he said wrestling what's that didn't know anything about wrestling so again they train trained him for about nine months who trained him do you know do you know who trained him and uh and uh he became al gigante in uh wcw do you know who trained him um what the the school there the WCW school uh I forget the guy's names uh sergeant Buddy Lee Parker or Buddy Parker or something like that yeah yeah yeah the park yeah Ryan's guy yeah yeah they were training them and you know they weren't training him to do monkey flips or sunset flips or you know stuff like that they were training them to be the giant you know and he eventually got it he was never a class A worker he didn't really get the business that well but what got him over was the size and he needed uh somebody to take care of him and Dusty asked me said Vonzi would you take care of uh uh my giant for me he needs 24-7 care we're pay you extra I was already making six figures in WCW said we'll pay you a little more and get you a Cadillac I had a Cadillac 365 days a year for the giant and we traveled the world together and we ended up doing things like uh uh Baywatch Pamela Anderson and Baywatch and doing uh Thunder in Paradise Hulk Hogan's TV series he had for two years that was uh we ended up having a one of the episodes on that so it's funny how many perks that I would get from being around the giant you know being this personal assistant like I got a fuck I had a cell phone my cell phone rings and I'm identified number and he said Vonti I said yeah he said Ted Turner so I've never met I've seen Ted one time and the whole time I was there came to one of the shows uh and what he and the Braves so this was I think in 9192 when the Braves or Atlanta Braves are winning a lot of World Series.
00:39:33.360 --> 00:40:13.360
Remember they won like back-to-back World Series uh like through maybe two or three years in a row they were in the running and he said Vonsi I need a favor from you I said yes sir anything he said I want you to go to the Braves game and I want you to sit where me and Jimmy Carter would sit in the presidential box and uh you know uh and we're the camera's gonna pan over to Giant Gonzalez and the Brook and the announcer would say hey the Raves are doing so good it brings the largest athlete on the planet over to watch them and then pan over and they wouldn't say and Vonzi too they would I'd just be sitting next to them but some of the perks like that were pretty fucking cool.
00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:23.360
You know being on Baywatch with a giant I was on the background playing volleyball I never had a park but they you know uh that was pretty cool.
00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:43.760
Um what when uh the timeline here so you worked for WCW with elegante and then you moved on to WWE or did Giant Gonzalez go there first you went first or how that was together what what what happened was uh you know the name when I say Jim Hurd.
00:40:44.079 --> 00:41:35.920
Yep yep the guy who fired Rick Flair he was the CEO of uh the pizza corporation or something was real good with money or something so they brought him in he hadn't he had no knowledge about wrestling but he had knowledge about running big companies and and the budgets and stuff so when he came in he approached a lot of the wrestlers were making big big money and he wanted to shave the um overhead down and he approached me and giant Gonzalez along with several other guys and he got me and Jack Gonzalez in uh in the office and said hey we you know we're saving some money we want you guys to take a pay cut you're still gonna make good money but you're not gonna make I'm not sure the the exact figure but but the first year was like 350 for giant Gonzalez the next year 450 and so on.
00:41:36.079 --> 00:42:21.840
So he wanted us to take it like a uh 30% pay cut for no reason we had legitimate contracts and uh we didn't want to do that and giant uh he said we'll give you guys some time to think about it giant Gonzalez said Fonti what are our options here well I don't want to take Kut I said I would either say what do you think our options are I said well you could probably go back and play European basketball if you wanted to but there's not big money in European basketball or you probably probably be able to go to Japan and wrestle in Japan as the big guy the largest South on the planet you know 20 weeks a year 10 15 weeks a year or uh he said do you know anybody in WWF?
00:42:21.920 --> 00:43:06.639
I said yeah I know JJ Dillon he was Vince's right hand man he was like the assistant booker and he was assistant booker down here in Florida championship wrestling uh for Dusty so I worked with JJ for years and years and you know JJ knew me really well so I said he said Fonse can you call WWF and see you know if we have any options there so I said okay so I called Titan Towers W I said uh and uh they answered the phone I said uh JJ Dillon please who's calling I said uh uh Bill Fonzi Alfonso and JJ picked up the phone right away I didn't think I could you know it's a a multi fucking million dollar company and I called JJ and get right to him like that.
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:33.039
He did it out of courtesy and we talked for a few minutes said what can I do for you Vonz I said well I explained to him about Jim Heard wanted to take us a pay cut and I wanted to see if Vince would be interested in giant Gonzales uh we can go to Japan or we can go play play European basketball and he said well let me let me run to my Vince and I'll get back with you.
00:43:33.199 --> 00:44:04.000
So we hung up the phone and 15 minutes later the phone rings and it's JJ says uh Vince is definitely interested when can you guys come up I said well Jack Gonzales just had a spur taken out of his heel so we're on downtime for eight days while he heals up he says can you guys come up tomorrow I said yeah we can come up tomorrow because I had Jack Gonzales at my parents' home on uh on uh 20 acres on a Lake house, um doing nothing but healing.
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:11.280
So we I said, well, JJ, I still fly first class and I can fly coach of course, and we're a package deal, you know.
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:14.800
I'm his handler, plus I can referee and so on and so on.
00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:19.920
So we flew up to be um WWE.
00:44:20.239 --> 00:44:34.559
So we we fly into uh Connecticut, and the limo picks us up and takes us right to Vince's house, not to the office we were expecting to go to Titan Towers, which you guys have passed many times and seen on the you know on the side of the interstate.
00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:38.639
So we went to right to Vince's house, and we walk in.
00:44:38.719 --> 00:44:48.559
There's Vince with his big green suit on with nice shoes on, and he walked in, he was amazed at Giant's house because Giant was actually amazing.
00:44:48.719 --> 00:44:56.000
I was with him three years every day for three years and was amazed every freaking day when I saw him.
00:44:56.320 --> 00:45:04.079
Uh it was crazy, and and uh um so he said, Yeah, we're definitely interested.
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:18.480
Uh and I said, Well, so Giant Gonzalez told Vince, hey, uh WCW still owes me 60 grand, and uh we gotta go back there, square all that up, and finish my deal.
00:45:18.559 --> 00:45:19.760
And he said, Don't even go back.
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:24.719
JJ write giant Gonzalez a check for 60 grand signing bonus, and he did.
00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:36.159
And this was uh close in December, or it might have been in December, and Giant Gonzalez told Vince, he said, Look, I haven't been home for three years for Christmas.
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:39.920
I'd like to go home and start sometime in January, you know?
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:48.559
And and uh and um Vince said, Oh, that'd give us time.
00:45:48.639 --> 00:45:52.079
He said, Of course you go home, that didn't give us time to create a gimmick for you.
00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:53.599
They made them giant Gonzalez.
00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:56.960
They didn't like how he got the, so they put the fur gimmick on him.
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:08.320
So anyway, Giant Gonzalez went home for Christmas, and he said, Bonti, do you want to start in January when the giant comes back and we start you guys together?
00:46:08.400 --> 00:46:11.199
I said, No, I'd rather start as soon as possible.
00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:15.519
That way I get you know the format of your company now.
00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:20.719
So when giant comes back, I'm familiar with the company and so on and so on.
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:22.880
He said, Okay, JJ put him to work.
00:46:23.039 --> 00:46:40.320
So JJ started uh adding me to the booking sheet, you know, and uh my first week, Giant went home, my first week was in December, was in Madison Square Gardens, and said, you know, uh gave me a booking sheet for uh for the month.
00:46:40.719 --> 00:46:50.239
Uh and my first week was uh Madison Square Gardens because WCW didn't run there, because you know that's fixed territory.
00:46:50.719 --> 00:46:55.360
So I said, damn, uh Madison Square Gardens is the most famous arena on the planet.
00:46:55.440 --> 00:46:57.280
What's more famous than Madison Square?
00:46:57.360 --> 00:46:57.760
Nothing.
00:46:57.920 --> 00:46:58.800
Tokyo Dome?
00:46:59.039 --> 00:46:59.199
No.
00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:06.000
Madison Square Gardens is the premier uh uh venue on the planet.
00:47:06.239 --> 00:47:10.000
So I was excited my first freaking week I'm in Madison Square.
00:47:10.079 --> 00:47:14.320
So, and I was making money in WCW, so I was dressing really nice.
00:47:14.400 --> 00:47:40.960
And uh, you know, I don't have blonde hair and big arms, so I gotta dress nice because you know, about warfare zuubas or jeans and a nice polo shirt or something, to the matches and referee, and uh but if I came in, Matt Square Gloids with a nice suit and a Rolex on nice luggage and your hair perfect, they know you're somebody.
00:47:41.039 --> 00:47:45.679
They know who the fuck you are, but you gotta be somebody looking like a million dollars, you know.
00:47:46.159 --> 00:48:09.119
So my first week I I walk in and I'm dressed beautiful with a suit of Samaritan Rolex, uh, hair of fucking nice fucking Louis Madon luggage and all that, and got to the Madison Square, and back I mentioned the Zubas, and everybody was wearing the Zubas back then, and and you know, all the referees, and Vince calls me over to the ring.
00:48:09.199 --> 00:48:12.880
This was about five o'clock in the afternoon, you know, call times early.
00:48:13.039 --> 00:48:22.000
So Vince called me over and called all the other referees and said, Erl Hebner and Dave Hebner and Kyoto and all those guys said, hey, you see how Bonji's dressed?
00:48:22.079 --> 00:48:25.280
That's how I want you guys to dress from now on, all you referees.
00:48:25.440 --> 00:48:28.239
And then I got heat with the referees for dressing like that.
00:48:29.199 --> 00:48:30.559
We're the supers no more.
00:48:30.800 --> 00:48:32.800
He in a joking way, you know what I mean?
00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:35.840
But uh, so that was pretty cool.
00:48:35.920 --> 00:48:38.079
So that's how we got into WWF.
00:48:38.239 --> 00:48:42.719
I called JJ and they were interested, and they hired us on the spot.
00:48:42.880 --> 00:48:49.920
We met with Vince for an hour at his home in Connecticut, and they uh uh gave us both contracts.
00:48:50.239 --> 00:49:00.159
And uh I was there for uh we came in right after WrestleMania 8, uh, did WrestleMania 9 and I left before WrestleMania 10.
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:13.440
At the time his house was starting to get uh uh beat up, you know, his body was getting beat up, he became diabetic and couldn't handle the road no more, so he was forced to retire due to his health, you know.
00:49:15.440 --> 00:49:23.760
So he went back to Argentina and I finished up in WWF, and uh then eventually Paul Heyman caught me and ECW's another story.
00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:28.320
Uh before we get to that, um uh some questions about Giant Gonzalez.
00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:33.280
So, I mean, you have some keepsakes and stuff uh from that time from Giant Gonzales?
00:49:33.519 --> 00:49:41.840
Do you uh did you Yeah, I got a lot of pictures and magazines and uh and uh stuff in my mind, like we went to Baywatch.
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:51.119
I got pictures with Pamela Anderson, Ramin's everybody liked the giant because he was but he's eight photographs seven seven legitimate.
00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:51.360
Yeah.
00:49:51.599 --> 00:49:54.639
So he was a God's wonder, one of God's gifts, you know.
00:49:55.280 --> 00:49:56.400
So the girls liked him, huh?
00:49:56.960 --> 00:49:58.880
A lot of memories like that, you know.
00:49:59.039 --> 00:50:05.440
And uh we spent three years together, seven days a week, 365 days a year together.
00:50:05.599 --> 00:50:08.639
We weren't on the road, we were together in Florida.
00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:09.360
Yeah.
00:50:09.599 --> 00:50:10.880
Or Atlanta.
00:50:12.559 --> 00:50:16.079
So the girls, the girls were after the giant Gonzalez.
00:50:17.440 --> 00:50:18.559
Oh yeah.
00:50:18.800 --> 00:50:26.800
Um so giant Gonzalez, you know, Andre was already full-fledged, had the Giants disease.
00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:27.840
I forgot what it's called.
00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:29.599
Uh yeah, giantism or something.
00:50:29.679 --> 00:50:30.400
I forgot what it's called.
00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:32.400
Yeah.
00:50:32.639 --> 00:50:37.280
Um so the giant was still good looking.
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:46.480
His his forehead wasn't protruding, his jaw wasn't getting bigger, he was just big, but it's proportioned well, and the women freaking loved him.
00:50:46.639 --> 00:50:51.840
And I'm not talking about the girls that just came to the wrestling matches like we were in California.
00:50:52.159 --> 00:50:54.559
Uh this little uh pretty good story.
00:50:54.639 --> 00:50:55.920
I'm glad it happened back then.
00:50:56.000 --> 00:51:00.239
I'm happily married, but I'll still tell the I told my wife the story.
00:51:02.159 --> 00:51:07.760
Um we were in California, Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Forum doing the show.
00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:12.079
And we had uh in daytime, we were walking around the mall.
00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:22.239
We had housewives following us around beautiful girls, just interested in him because he was just a big, tall Hispanic, good-looking kid, and a great personality.
00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:24.000
He was funny, charming.
00:51:24.239 --> 00:51:25.599
Women loved him.
00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:31.280
So uh, and you know I was with him all the time as a personal assistant.
00:51:31.440 --> 00:51:44.480
So uh we were taking him to the Marriott and Los Angeles at the airport, and it'd be very ordinary for me to get a phone call from Zagan's house at three in the morning and say, Hey Ponzi, I can't sleep, I'm a little hungry.
00:51:44.639 --> 00:51:50.559
Would you mind going to In N Out Burger and give me five hamburgers and three French fries and a couple of milkshakes?
00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:52.960
And that was literally kind of my job.
00:51:55.760 --> 00:51:58.639
And I said, Of course, John, anything for you.
00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:04.719
So it was very normal for me to go get him food in the middle of the night, you know, at the hotel.
00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:09.280
We would never split a room, we would always get our own rooms, but side by side.
00:52:10.159 --> 00:52:14.639
So he called me, we're in Los Angeles, he called me, he said, Hey Mons, can you come to my room?
00:52:16.079 --> 00:52:18.159
Maybe 1 30, 2 o'clock in the morning.
00:52:18.320 --> 00:52:24.400
I said, Okay, I could say to myself, oh, he wants me to go to In and Outburger and get him some some hamburgers or something.
00:52:24.480 --> 00:52:30.159
So I go to his room, knock on his door, and he opens the door and he's standing there seven foot seven naked.
00:52:30.320 --> 00:52:32.159
And I said, Hey John, what are you doing naked?
00:52:32.239 --> 00:52:33.519
He opens the door a little more.
00:52:33.599 --> 00:52:37.280
And there's a beautiful blonde girl in bed naked.
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:41.679
I mean, she was pretty like, uh, you know how pretty Sunny was, right?
00:52:43.199 --> 00:52:44.880
That great body, Miss Hyde.
00:52:45.039 --> 00:52:47.599
And she was one of those beautiful girls.
00:52:47.760 --> 00:52:49.280
And she was naked in the bed.
00:52:49.360 --> 00:52:52.880
I said, John, and I've been a little bit embarrassed, you know.
00:52:53.039 --> 00:52:55.280
Uh he said, we got a problem.
00:52:55.519 --> 00:52:57.360
I said, Well, what's the problem?
00:52:57.679 --> 00:53:04.239
He said, Well, the girth at my uh my fucking uh junk is too is too fat.
00:53:04.480 --> 00:53:06.159
I can't get it inside her.
00:53:06.719 --> 00:53:14.000
He says, What I want you to do uh is jump on her and bang her for a few minutes and get it away and then leave it.
00:53:15.039 --> 00:53:16.159
And this is crazy.
00:53:16.239 --> 00:53:18.480
And the girl said, Please, Bonzi, help us.
00:53:18.559 --> 00:53:25.280
So my job that night was prepping a girl for a giant Gonzalez of fucking fuck her.
00:53:25.760 --> 00:53:27.199
I don't know if I can hear this.
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:33.039
Okay, Daddy, how how do you guys like that story?
00:53:33.199 --> 00:53:34.719
It's kind of kind of crazy.
00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:42.960
So um, so my job that night, instead of going to get him food at three o'clock in the morning, was uh to fluff a girl for him.
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:45.920
So and that was very unusual.
00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:49.360
That's all it happened one time in my life, you know.
00:53:49.519 --> 00:53:53.920
Uh, and you know, he was a he was the largest athlete on the planet at that time.
00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:56.239
There was nobody bigger than Jack Gonzalez.
00:53:56.480 --> 00:54:01.920
Later on, that kid from China, Ming, he came and played basketball for Houston.
00:54:02.159 --> 00:54:08.800
But uh Jack Gonzalez was the tallest athlete on the planet, and it was really cool being his personal assistant.
00:54:08.960 --> 00:54:14.000
And, you know, and he got he got my foot in the door for, you know, uh WWF.
00:54:14.480 --> 00:54:15.519
He took me along with him.
00:54:15.599 --> 00:54:17.920
He said I uh he didn't want anybody else.
00:54:18.079 --> 00:54:25.440
We got along so well, and we traveled together for three years, so he didn't want anybody else to be his personal assistant.
00:54:27.440 --> 00:54:28.800
Wow, that's awesome.
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:35.519
Um, so how was like uh like you said, you gotta give him five cheeseburgers or something.
00:54:35.599 --> 00:54:36.639
How was his diet?
00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:43.280
I mean, the feeding the giant would have probably is uh a daunting task.
00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:46.639
Like he must have spent a lot of money just on food.
00:54:47.440 --> 00:54:48.480
Yeah, he did.
00:54:48.559 --> 00:54:52.320
He was a big eater because he hadn't that big body in a few, you know.
00:54:52.639 --> 00:54:56.320
Uh and he fell in love with the food here in the United States.
00:54:56.400 --> 00:55:03.280
Remember, he was in Europe and came from a poor country, Argentina, you know, and and wasn't wealthy growing up.
00:55:03.440 --> 00:55:14.000
So uh when he came here and got to start making those big six-figure numbers, and you know, we started going to he loved a good steakhouse boy.
00:55:14.239 --> 00:55:20.960
You know, we ate a lot of elite steakhouses all over the uh country and all over the world, literally.
00:55:21.679 --> 00:55:25.440
Um but yeah, he was a huge, huge eater.
00:55:25.679 --> 00:55:28.639
Like, you know, the rotisserie chickens, he'd eat two of them.
00:55:29.360 --> 00:55:30.159
Whole ones?
00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:33.360
A whole chicken.
00:55:33.679 --> 00:55:34.000
Wow.
00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:34.960
Yeah, yeah.
00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:42.000
Eat one for sure, and some but you know, sometimes he'd order two and do a pretty good job uh almost eating both of them.
00:55:42.400 --> 00:55:44.159
Plus with the size and all that.
00:55:44.239 --> 00:55:52.239
But yeah, we'd go to In N Out Burgers or, you know, five or six of the biggest burgers and big things of fries, and yeah.
00:55:52.719 --> 00:55:54.880
And he wasn't a big drinker at all.
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:59.840
He liked a little bit of wine now and then, but uh and he was quite the athlete.
00:55:59.920 --> 00:56:01.840
He had a pretty good damn body at him.
00:56:04.480 --> 00:56:09.519
Is there one particular thing that people just misunderstand about him?
00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:13.360
Um I don't know.
00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:17.199
He was uh one of God's gifts, you know what I mean?
00:56:17.519 --> 00:56:24.239
Um people would stare at him because he was so big, but uh but you can't help it.
00:56:24.400 --> 00:56:26.480
You can't help but look at something like that.
00:56:26.559 --> 00:56:31.119
You know, you see something very unusual that you've never seen in your life.
00:56:31.599 --> 00:56:34.079
But it and and he grew to like it.
00:56:34.159 --> 00:56:36.239
You know, he would take advantage of it, you know.
00:56:36.320 --> 00:56:42.320
He would uh people wouldn't say bad things about him on golf, kind of say you make fun of him or anything.
00:56:42.400 --> 00:56:45.599
They would just, you know, had the eyes like that, looking at him wide open.
00:56:45.760 --> 00:56:48.320
So what the what the hell did I just see, you know?
00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:49.679
And people loved him.
00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:56.000
He was generally funny, had a great personality, uh, very intelligent, very smart.
00:56:56.400 --> 00:57:04.960
Uh he was just uh maybe that's maybe that's one of the uh things that people misunderstood about him, that he was so smart, you know.
00:57:07.679 --> 00:57:13.440
He was just like me and you, had feelings and uh, you know, not super educated, but smart.
00:57:13.760 --> 00:57:14.159
Smart.
00:57:14.239 --> 00:57:16.800
He got anything pretty well.
00:57:17.599 --> 00:57:19.199
I miss him actually.
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:20.239
Yeah.
00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:25.280
That was a great part of my career being with the tallest athlete on the planet for three years.
00:57:26.960 --> 00:57:37.280
Uh going to ECW, you uh went in there uh to do a you were a referee and uh end up being a heel referee for Paul Heyman.
00:57:38.559 --> 00:57:39.840
Um Yes.
00:57:40.079 --> 00:57:43.679
Well, actually, I just left WWF.
00:57:44.159 --> 00:57:50.559
And you know, Vince wants the doctor, his wife, and the two kids at ringside.
00:57:50.880 --> 00:57:59.360
ECW is 90% male from the age of 18 and 30 years old, you know, uh, and hardcore and stuff.
00:57:59.519 --> 00:58:13.599
So Paul Heyman, I had worked with Paul Heyman for uh years in WCW and Florida Tempest at Wrestling, and uh he called me and said, Fonzi, I already got released from WWF.
00:58:13.679 --> 00:58:29.599
I said, Yeah, the giant stick, you went home, and uh and business is down a little bit, and they laid me off and they're gonna hire me back when business picks back up, but they're still gonna use me in Florida, they're still gonna use me in different events for WWF.
00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:33.119
He said, Well, listen, I got this company called ECW.
00:58:33.280 --> 00:58:35.440
I said, What the fuck's an ECW?
00:58:35.679 --> 00:58:39.039
I've never, I thought it was some type of indie little company.
00:58:39.199 --> 00:58:46.079
They call them outlaw shows back when I was uh uh in the business.
00:58:46.239 --> 00:58:52.159
And uh he said, Well, we're starting this company, we got Terry Punt, we got this guy and that guy.
00:58:52.320 --> 00:58:54.639
He said, I got this idea for you, Bonji.
00:58:54.880 --> 00:59:04.960
I want you to bring in, bring you in and be anti-ECW for four weeks and try to shut us down and try to make us more sports entertainment like Vince.
00:59:05.679 --> 00:59:11.840
And I think it'll get over, and you come for four weeks, and we get 911 to choke slam you up, and then you're done.
00:59:11.920 --> 00:59:13.199
Would you be willing to do that?
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:15.519
I said, Yeah, of course, give me something to do.
00:59:15.840 --> 00:59:21.599
So I went in to be anti-ECW, and my character got over.
00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:38.239
Uh, Bill Alphonse Alfonso, anti-ECW, anti-violence, anti-chairs, anti-blood, and the people wanted to kill me uh because I was taking their entertainment in a way, their, you know, their hardcore extreme entertainment.
00:59:38.480 --> 00:59:44.000
And uh so eventually I got choke slammed, but then he put me with Taz.
00:59:44.159 --> 00:59:47.920
Because Taz had like three or four different gimmicks before he came Taz.
00:59:48.159 --> 00:59:52.000
He was Tasmania, he was monkey boy, he was this, he was that.
00:59:52.159 --> 00:59:54.159
Never got over until it became Taz.
00:59:54.400 --> 01:00:07.840
And that's when he put me and him together, and then we had that one-year uh win streak where he didn't lose a match, tough guy, and kind of introduced me into the manager role, and and uh, which was pretty cool.
01:00:07.920 --> 01:00:12.880
And then eventually I turned against Taz and went with Sabu and Van Dam, which was great.
01:00:12.960 --> 01:00:16.480
I had a great spot for you know five years that I was there.
01:00:16.880 --> 01:00:19.199
So you mentioned like how much heat you were getting.
01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:23.599
Were you ever uh uh concerned for your safety?
01:00:24.079 --> 01:00:25.599
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:46.719
But um I was around the guys all the time, but I was more of my concern would be in the arena, you know, because after, you know, the same guy that would spit on you and throw a beer on you at the ECW arena would buy you a cocktail at the you know at the holiday end after, you know.
01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:48.880
So they would just get carried away.
01:00:49.039 --> 01:01:07.360
So I don't know if I was any, well, fans do get carried away, and you know, guys have got stabbed uh uh from an excited fan, but I just was lucky, I guess, and was surrounded by a good crew, and they always took care of me.
01:01:09.360 --> 01:01:15.360
Um, so uh in in ECW, you've learned a lot from Paul Heyman.
01:01:15.440 --> 01:01:22.079
What and what did you learn from Paul Heyman in ECW that you didn't have before?
01:01:22.239 --> 01:01:26.960
Did Paul equip you with something else that you didn't have before?
01:01:28.159 --> 01:01:32.639
Well, um, who knew there was a market?
01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:38.159
Paul Heyman knew created that hardcore extreme ECW market.
01:01:38.239 --> 01:01:42.159
Who knew there was a market for you know hardcore stuff like that?
01:01:42.320 --> 01:01:46.000
Uh and I guess ECW started out, now everybody's doing it.
01:01:46.079 --> 01:01:56.079
You know, I go to these independent shows all over the country, and uh they're doing what we did in ECW in the 90s, you know, the mid-90s.
01:01:57.360 --> 01:01:58.239
Excuse me.
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:02.960
Um just was brilliant, you know.
01:02:03.119 --> 01:02:11.280
Uh and walked me through, held my hand until I got the the rhythm of ECW and uh taught me how to be myself.
01:02:11.440 --> 01:02:23.599
Uh, you know, as a referee for all those years, from Florida to WCW to WWF, you know, how how many times did you see a referee do a promo?
01:02:23.840 --> 01:02:30.960
Not very many times, you know, uh, a few times, but I really didn't know how to do a promo.
01:02:31.280 --> 01:02:44.880
So when I when they switched me from the evil anti-ECW referee to managing TAS, I was having trouble doing promos, you know, for the first week or two.
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:50.079
And he said, Fonzi, come on, you're a character, just be just be yourself.
01:02:50.239 --> 01:02:57.199
He said, you know we're gonna be in at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia on March 2nd.
01:02:57.360 --> 01:03:04.960
You know Saboo's gonna go in against Tad, you know it's gonna be a line's outmatch, you know it's just tell the truth, but in your own way.
01:03:05.039 --> 01:03:13.199
And I said, okay, I think I got it said, hey daddy, March 2nd, Tad's a taboo, daddy, anything going there, but I I got it right away.
01:03:13.280 --> 01:03:19.039
And then I became that character, spitting and hyper and all that, and I could do promos.
01:03:19.280 --> 01:03:21.039
Did you already have the whistle then?
01:03:21.440 --> 01:03:24.480
Paul Heyman gave me the whistle when he put me with Taz.
01:03:24.800 --> 01:03:25.119
Yeah.
01:03:25.440 --> 01:03:35.679
Um so we I went from the anti-ECW referee to managing TAS, and the first week he Paul Heeman brought that whistle for me.
01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:39.360
Um that was just to draw heat.
01:03:40.239 --> 01:03:50.000
I I guess, I I guess uh uh actually I I didn't know what to, yeah, I was a little embarrassed to blow it.
01:03:50.079 --> 01:03:56.079
So the next week I forgot my whistle at home, and and uh he said, hey, where's your whistle, Ponzi?
01:03:56.239 --> 01:03:57.119
That's your gimmick.
01:03:57.280 --> 01:03:58.400
And then I got it.
01:03:58.639 --> 01:04:01.840
So, you know, you recognize Ponzi as a whistle guy.
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:07.519
So if I meet a wrestling fan and, you know, oh, you think I'll blew the whistle?
01:04:07.599 --> 01:04:14.239
Oh yeah, Ponzi, boom, so they could identify me with the uh whistle, which is pretty cool.
01:04:14.480 --> 01:04:20.400
Did did you ever annoy the shit out of Taz or RVD or uh Sabu or whistle?
01:04:23.360 --> 01:04:25.119
They got used to it like I did.
01:04:25.199 --> 01:04:25.519
Yeah.
01:04:25.679 --> 01:04:35.440
And actually, I look back at some of the matches that I manage Sabu, Taz, and Pandam, and blew the whistle, you know, constantly.
01:04:35.679 --> 01:04:39.920
I thought uh back now, I said, damn, maybe I blew it too much.
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:42.239
I should have just blew it on my intro.
01:04:42.400 --> 01:04:47.119
I should have just blew it a few times during the match, not consistently.
01:04:47.280 --> 01:04:54.639
Some of the matches I blew consistently were pretty, you know, like 25% of the match I was blowing a freaking whistle.
01:04:54.960 --> 01:05:02.559
Uh but it did get heat, and we were uh bad guys for a while, but we were actually characters.
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:03.920
Everybody was a character.
01:05:04.000 --> 01:05:07.920
There was kind of really no heels and baby faces in ECW.
01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:10.000
We were just characters, you know.
01:05:10.880 --> 01:05:13.519
Even Raven was a big heel, but he was a character.
01:05:13.679 --> 01:05:14.800
People loved him.
01:05:15.119 --> 01:05:18.880
So, what are your memories of uh that year you spent with Taz?
01:05:21.599 --> 01:05:24.079
Taz is a no bullshit guy.
01:05:24.320 --> 01:05:25.760
He liked to get there early.
01:05:25.840 --> 01:05:27.119
He was a workout foo.
01:05:27.199 --> 01:05:31.280
He didn't go out and party after the match and go to the after parties and drink and all that.
01:05:31.360 --> 01:05:37.119
He was a workout foo, took his business real serious, and it made me take my business serious too.
01:05:37.199 --> 01:05:39.920
Uh when I'm working around Taz, he was a great guy.
01:05:40.079 --> 01:05:43.519
Taz was a mo motivator and they have all these young guys.
01:05:43.599 --> 01:05:45.679
This guy got a picture of us.
01:05:46.079 --> 01:05:50.000
Um, excuse me for getting up and down grabbing pictures.
01:05:50.239 --> 01:05:58.719
Uh don't worry, we're gonna ask you about RVD and Sabu as well.
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:01.440
It's a great picture.
01:06:02.079 --> 01:06:02.559
Wow.
01:06:03.280 --> 01:06:06.559
And then Taz had his crew, you know, he had all his guys.
01:06:08.079 --> 01:06:08.719
Remember those guys?
01:06:08.960 --> 01:06:09.119
Yep.
01:06:09.199 --> 01:06:09.440
Yep.
01:06:09.760 --> 01:06:10.559
Chris Chetty.
01:06:11.119 --> 01:06:13.679
Yeah, Chris Chetty, and then several other guys.
01:06:13.920 --> 01:06:14.159
Yeah.
01:06:14.639 --> 01:06:18.639
There's all kinds of action, all kinds of cards and stuff that came out.
01:06:19.360 --> 01:06:20.559
Taz was great, man.
01:06:20.639 --> 01:06:24.880
Taz was a good learning experience for me becoming a manager.
01:06:25.039 --> 01:06:28.079
So I like Taz.
01:06:28.239 --> 01:06:30.079
I'm still friends with him today.
01:06:30.320 --> 01:06:30.960
Yeah.
01:06:31.280 --> 01:06:32.719
Yeah, it was one of my favorites.
01:06:32.880 --> 01:06:33.599
I love Taz.
01:06:33.840 --> 01:06:34.719
I love Taz.
01:06:36.079 --> 01:06:41.119
Alright, so after Taz, you move over to managing RVD and Sabu.
01:06:41.599 --> 01:06:44.480
Um, memories of your time with the two of them.
01:06:45.440 --> 01:06:48.960
Wow, what a great spot that I had with those guys.
01:06:49.039 --> 01:06:56.480
Who knew that uh Van Dam was going to be one of the biggest stars to come out of ECW, the whole fucking show?
01:06:56.639 --> 01:06:56.880
Mr.
01:06:57.039 --> 01:06:58.159
Pay-per-View, Mr.
01:06:58.239 --> 01:07:00.079
Monday Night, RBD.
01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:07.920
And then Sabu was already pretty established, and Ben Dam was just getting established, you know.
01:07:08.239 --> 01:07:10.400
And man, he was a phenomenon.
01:07:10.480 --> 01:07:15.360
There's nobody like Ben Dam, you know, and he got over and he took me right with him.
01:07:15.440 --> 01:07:18.480
And man, I had such a great time.
01:07:18.559 --> 01:07:21.199
And him and Jerry Lynn had some classic matches.
01:07:21.599 --> 01:07:25.199
Whoever Ben Nam worked with had great great matches.
01:07:25.360 --> 01:07:27.039
We had fucking great matches.
01:07:27.119 --> 01:07:29.440
And he was doing stuff that nobody else would do.
01:07:29.519 --> 01:07:34.880
He had those great thighs, so he could jump and do all kind of you know martial arts stuff.
01:07:34.960 --> 01:07:37.840
And it was very cool to work with uh RVD.
01:07:38.159 --> 01:07:39.679
And I'm still good friends with him.
01:07:39.760 --> 01:07:41.760
He just had kids, he just had a set of twins.
01:07:42.000 --> 01:07:42.559
Oh wow.
01:07:42.639 --> 01:07:50.000
Oh, yeah, and they named one after he had uh he's got two girls, twins, and they named one after Sabu.
01:07:50.559 --> 01:07:51.760
Her name is Sabah.
01:07:52.079 --> 01:07:53.679
Oh, it's nice.
01:07:53.760 --> 01:07:54.000
Yeah.
01:07:54.239 --> 01:07:59.679
Yeah, because they were uh friends for you know childhood friends almost.
01:07:59.920 --> 01:08:00.559
Hmm.
01:08:00.800 --> 01:08:24.319
Um one of the things I I I really wanted to ask is like during all these promos and things you had to film uh for ECW, all the whistleblowing and everything, was it always hard to keep a straight face during this for you and your and whoever you managed, or I mean you guys are professionals, but was there ever a time where it was hard to keep a straight face?
01:08:25.520 --> 01:08:26.960
I don't think so.
01:08:27.199 --> 01:08:28.159
I don't think so.
01:08:28.319 --> 01:08:34.720
We were so into our characters and so into our things, and and some of the stuff was funny naturally, you know what I mean?
01:08:34.800 --> 01:08:36.880
And we did some funny promos and stuff.
01:08:37.039 --> 01:08:41.840
Uh uh, not not really, not really hard to keep a straight face.
01:08:42.239 --> 01:08:44.880
You know, we're in we're entertainers.
01:08:45.840 --> 01:08:46.399
All right.
01:08:46.640 --> 01:08:51.039
Uh before we wind it down, I I really want to ask you.
01:08:51.520 --> 01:08:52.800
Hey, don't wind me up, Daddy.
01:08:52.880 --> 01:08:54.159
I can talk like that.
01:08:54.319 --> 01:08:55.039
You can keep talking.
01:08:55.119 --> 01:08:59.920
Hey, if you have time, if you have time, brother, but if you have time, we can keep going.
01:09:00.079 --> 01:09:02.560
I just didn't want to uh take up too much of your time.
01:09:02.720 --> 01:09:09.199
But I wanted to ask you, and you can keep going, but I wanted to ask you first, I need some Roddy Piper stories.
01:09:09.279 --> 01:09:14.159
You said something about an alligator, and I do want to hear uh after that some rib and road stories.
01:09:14.239 --> 01:09:20.800
I need a I need one of your favorite ribs, but let's get to uh Roddy Piper and that uh alligator story.
01:09:21.039 --> 01:09:24.000
Well, I got a couple of quick stories about Roddy Piper.
01:09:24.159 --> 01:09:24.479
Sure.
01:09:24.720 --> 01:09:32.000
I remember when they they exchanged me and uh um the referee.
01:09:32.159 --> 01:09:35.680
Uh I went to Mid-Atlantic and they brought Tommy Young to Florida.
01:09:35.920 --> 01:09:54.640
So we were in, I think it was Raleigh, North Carolina, and Roddy Piper was a big heel up there, and he was coming back, he had a match with one of the baby faces, and coming back from the ring, a guy jumped over the rail and stabbed Piper with a little, you know, the little case knife.
01:09:54.720 --> 01:09:59.920
I mean, a real small little knife like that, but still stabbed him in the in the gut somewhere.
01:10:00.720 --> 01:10:06.960
And uh and that was and and I ran backstage and told Sergeant Slaughter, I said, hey, they just have Piper.
01:10:07.119 --> 01:10:10.960
They went out and beat the beat the hell out of that guy and it took him to jail and everything.
01:10:11.039 --> 01:10:12.159
But Piper was okay.
01:10:12.239 --> 01:10:19.119
But so anyway, later on back in Florida, Piper, you know, Piper's a Canadian, you know.
01:10:19.359 --> 01:10:22.640
Uh so he'd come down for the week.
01:10:22.800 --> 01:10:24.720
Remember, I told you it was my job.
01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:34.079
So when Andrea Giant would come down for the week, or you know, Fabulous Mool or the Middleton or Abby, uh the butchers, uh, it was my job to take him around.
01:10:34.159 --> 01:10:36.319
So Piper came down for the week.
01:10:36.399 --> 01:10:42.880
They he was in uh Mid-Atlantic working for Crockett, and Crockett sent him down here with Dusty for the week.
01:10:43.039 --> 01:10:47.840
And it was me, Kevin Sullivan, and a guy named Frank Deusik.
01:10:48.079 --> 01:10:52.960
Remember the famous Deusick brothers, Wally Deustick, back in the 60s and 70s?
01:10:53.039 --> 01:10:57.760
It was a famous wrestling name way before our time.
01:10:58.640 --> 01:10:59.199
I've heard of that.
01:10:59.439 --> 01:10:59.920
I've heard their name.
01:11:00.239 --> 01:11:01.279
His name was Frank Dusick.
01:11:01.439 --> 01:11:07.600
So we it was Frank Dustig, Ponzi driving, Kevin Sullivan and Roddy Piper were driving to Miami.
01:11:07.760 --> 01:11:11.840
And we're going across alligator alley and the Everglades.
01:11:12.479 --> 01:11:19.600
And uh there's a canal that runs parallel with the road that cuts from Naples all the way across.
01:11:19.680 --> 01:11:21.279
It's like a hundred-mile road.
01:11:21.680 --> 01:11:25.279
Going across it as a canal running the whole length of the road.
01:11:25.600 --> 01:11:29.199
And Piper starts spotting all these alligators and going crazy.
01:11:29.279 --> 01:11:31.439
He's never seen the alligators, a Canadian, you know.
01:11:31.600 --> 01:11:34.079
He said, Oh my god, look at that gator, look at that one.
01:11:34.479 --> 01:11:37.600
And finally he says, Man, I wish I had a gun.
01:11:38.000 --> 01:11:41.039
And Frank Dusick says, Well, I got a gun.
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:43.199
So he says, Pull over, Fonse.
01:11:43.359 --> 01:11:52.159
So we pull over, and Frank Dusik goes in the trunk and pulls out of his uh duffel bag a small little stubborn-nosed 38, this freaking big.
01:11:52.399 --> 01:11:57.520
And and the alligator's on the other side of the canal, laying on the bank of the canal.
01:11:57.600 --> 01:12:03.920
And I say the canal's like 60 or 70 feet wide or maybe or somewhere around like that.
01:12:04.479 --> 01:12:08.239
There's no way Piper's gonna shoot that alligator and hit the alligator.
01:12:08.319 --> 01:12:08.880
You know what I mean?
01:12:09.039 --> 01:12:10.720
It's one in a million shots.
01:12:10.880 --> 01:12:14.079
So, especially if it's a little stubnosed 38.
01:12:14.720 --> 01:12:20.479
So Piper takes aim, boom, he pulls the trigger, bam, and he hits the gator.
01:12:20.880 --> 01:12:27.439
Hits the gator with the fucking bullet, and the gator starts selling and frawls in the water and flips over.
01:12:27.600 --> 01:12:33.680
Now the alligator flips, he's on, you know, his stomach's uh facing up, and we think he's dead.
01:12:33.920 --> 01:12:40.880
So Piper has this great idea, and then and uh and uh the canal is full of alligators.
01:12:41.520 --> 01:12:44.319
He wasn't the only alligators, gators all over the place.
01:12:44.479 --> 01:12:46.640
So Piper says, Man, I want to get the gator.
01:12:46.880 --> 01:12:48.960
He's dead, look at him, he's floating.
01:12:49.279 --> 01:12:51.920
Uh so Kevin Sullivan has this bright idea.
01:12:52.000 --> 01:12:58.000
He says, Okay, I'm gonna walk down a little bit, I'm gonna splash the water and draw all the other alligators towards me.
01:12:58.159 --> 01:13:02.880
Meanwhile, you take all your clothes off and you swim across and get the dead gator.
01:13:03.520 --> 01:13:05.760
So Piper thought it was a great idea.
01:13:06.319 --> 01:13:08.079
You know, everybody did, I guess.
01:13:08.239 --> 01:13:11.840
So Piper strips down, he's got his white underwear on only.
01:13:12.479 --> 01:13:20.800
He gets in the water, he's up to about his waist, and he starts swimming towards the alligator, and all of a sudden, the alligator flips back over.
01:13:20.960 --> 01:13:23.840
He was only selling, he was he was like working.
01:13:24.000 --> 01:13:27.760
So the bullet hit him, but it just stunned him for a few minutes.
01:13:28.319 --> 01:13:30.720
So the alligator starts swimming.
01:13:31.199 --> 01:13:33.439
Piper's way away from the bank, you know.
01:13:33.600 --> 01:13:38.560
So the alligator starts chasing Piper, and uh it was like a cartoon.
01:13:38.720 --> 01:13:44.239
Remember the road runner where he would run into place, you know, uh on the cartoon character.
01:13:44.399 --> 01:13:48.479
So Piper was swimming so bad it was the craziest thing I've ever seen.
01:13:48.640 --> 01:13:53.760
And uh and the alligator chased Piper all the way to the you know to the shoreline.
01:13:53.840 --> 01:13:56.960
So that was a great story, close to where he never got the alligator.
01:13:57.359 --> 01:13:58.560
Uh and it's the same.
01:13:58.640 --> 01:14:00.399
Yeah, but at least the alligator didn't get Piper.
01:14:01.680 --> 01:14:03.359
But, you know, a pretty cool story.
01:14:03.439 --> 01:14:06.239
And Piper told that story until he passed away.
01:14:06.399 --> 01:14:10.399
Well was uh alcohol or other goodies involved in this?
01:14:10.640 --> 01:14:11.279
No, no.
01:14:11.439 --> 01:14:19.119
Maybe a little Paccalolo, maybe a little 420, but no alcohol because we were on the way to Miami Beach Convention Center.
01:14:19.439 --> 01:14:22.319
You don't drink out of way, maybe you drink on the way back, you know?
01:14:22.479 --> 01:14:23.119
Yeah.
01:14:23.520 --> 01:14:25.680
But no, no, no, no alcohol involved.
01:14:25.840 --> 01:14:27.760
Piper was just a little bit nuts.
01:14:28.079 --> 01:14:31.520
Well, we're glad that Piper didn't get used by an alligator.
01:14:31.840 --> 01:14:33.600
Yeah, that was a great story.
01:14:33.760 --> 01:14:39.680
It's a little more detailed than that, but uh, you know, that was a legit pretty pretty damn close to what happened that day.
01:14:39.840 --> 01:14:46.239
And Kevin Sullivan had this great idea and says, let me go over here and splash the water and draw the other alligators.
01:14:46.399 --> 01:14:48.159
They're you know, bright idea, you know.
01:14:48.399 --> 01:14:56.000
These are, you know, prehistoric creatures, alligators, you know, they're 10 foot long, they can get you that, you know, alligator.
01:14:56.239 --> 01:15:09.359
If a deer's drinking uh water, he'll grab the deer and pull the deer in the l in uh in the water and drown the deer and then take it to its, you know, uh his little house and then tear them apart, you know.
01:15:09.680 --> 01:15:12.000
Alligators are tough creatures, man.
01:15:12.479 --> 01:15:13.840
Yeah, wow.
01:15:14.159 --> 01:15:16.079
Uh he was huge.
01:15:17.520 --> 01:15:20.159
You got another uh Roddy Piper story?
01:15:20.720 --> 01:15:27.920
Yeah, just just uh just uh where he got stabbed and the alligator story bring brings to mind, you know.
01:15:28.239 --> 01:15:30.159
Piper was a great guy to travel with.
01:15:30.239 --> 01:15:36.239
Uh of course I didn't travel with him that much because you know he was in Mid-Atlantic big superstar.
01:15:36.399 --> 01:15:45.600
They just brought him down as a novelty piece, like they were bringing Flair or they were bringing uh Moola or you know, uh, you know, an attraction for the week.
01:15:46.560 --> 01:15:50.239
Um you have any experiences with uh Haku?
01:15:52.479 --> 01:15:54.640
Yeah, I worked with Haku quite a bit.
01:15:54.720 --> 01:15:55.520
He was a tough guy.
01:15:55.600 --> 01:16:02.479
I wasn't there when he bit the guy's ear off or bit his nose off and threw him through a window of the you know at a hotel.
01:16:02.640 --> 01:16:02.960
Yeah.
01:16:03.119 --> 01:16:06.560
Uh tough guy, badass, badass guy.
01:16:07.199 --> 01:16:18.239
But uh most of the times that I worked with Haku at WWF, he was, you know, we were in the ring and uh uh so I wasn't around any of his fights or anything.
01:16:18.560 --> 01:16:19.039
Yeah.
01:16:19.279 --> 01:16:28.560
Do you have any other um road stories we can share before we get to the I'll tell you about uh uh Black Jack Mulligan beating the fuck out of Buck Robley?
01:16:28.800 --> 01:16:29.920
Remember Buck Robley?
01:16:31.039 --> 01:16:34.159
No, I don't remember Buck Robley, but I still want to hear this story.
01:16:34.640 --> 01:16:41.680
So anyway, we were doing TV in Florida, Florida Tim City Wrestling, and and Barry was a big star there.
01:16:42.000 --> 01:16:45.760
They brought Black Jack in, and Black Jack was working in territory.
01:16:45.840 --> 01:16:55.039
We would take TV Wednesday morning from like 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock, and then drive to Miami for the Miami Beach Convention Center show every Wednesday.
01:16:55.199 --> 01:17:02.079
But we would do TV every Wednesday for our two-hour TV shows in Florida.
01:17:02.399 --> 01:17:06.159
Uh and Kendo Wyndham was just breaking into business.
01:17:06.239 --> 01:17:09.359
Kendo was green as grass, and he was there at the TV studio.
01:17:09.439 --> 01:17:17.039
And so Buck, this wrestler named Buck Robey, walks in the dress room and says, Hey Mulligan, you got any speed?
01:17:18.399 --> 01:17:22.640
You know, ask him for a hit of speed, like, you know, the narcotico, whatever speed.
01:17:22.800 --> 01:17:27.520
And Mulligan didn't say anything, and and Buck Robley says, Hey, don't K Baby.
01:17:27.840 --> 01:17:31.600
Everybody knows you're the biggest speedhead in the business, which wasn't true.
01:17:31.840 --> 01:17:44.319
And Mulligan fucking got fucking mad as fuck, and and Buck Roby kept walking and walked into a different room, and Mulligan followed him in there and closed the door and beat the fuck out of him.
01:17:44.880 --> 01:17:50.880
But they had to send the guy to the hospital, both of his eyes, his jaw, and he just, you know, you don't say shit like that.
01:17:51.039 --> 01:17:51.359
Yeah.
01:17:51.600 --> 01:17:52.640
Yeah, you don't know.
01:17:52.960 --> 01:17:54.079
Especially not to play.
01:17:55.840 --> 01:17:57.039
I've seen uh a few fights.
01:17:57.119 --> 01:18:01.119
You know, it was another fighter was uh remember Billy Jack Haynes?
01:18:01.359 --> 01:18:01.760
Yep.
01:18:02.640 --> 01:18:04.479
Yeah, he was kind of a crazy one.
01:18:04.560 --> 01:18:09.279
I've seen him jump on a uh I've seen him uh beat up Tiger Conway.
01:18:09.359 --> 01:18:21.520
They did add something because Billy Jack was a big fan favorite and he liked the fans and and uh they had some words with each other and uh there's quite a few fights.
01:18:21.600 --> 01:18:29.039
I'm not talking about uh uh Tiger Conway because he was a tough guy too, but Billy Jack was just had that crazy toughness.
01:18:29.279 --> 01:18:30.399
You know, he's kind of a nut.
01:18:30.479 --> 01:18:31.760
You know, he killed his wife.
01:18:31.920 --> 01:18:34.800
Yeah, yeah, I saw that episode of Dark Side of the Ring.
01:18:34.880 --> 01:18:36.640
Yeah, said it was a mercy killing.
01:18:36.720 --> 01:18:38.000
He says he was dying anyway.
01:18:38.079 --> 01:18:41.119
Let me just end her life and shot him with a shotgun or something.
01:18:41.199 --> 01:18:43.600
Now he's in jail and or you know, whatever.
01:18:43.840 --> 01:18:44.159
Yeah.
01:18:44.319 --> 01:18:54.319
Uh all right, so what we do is we at the end of our uh show, we always have what we call a rapid fire smash.
01:18:54.640 --> 01:18:58.079
So it basically they're gonna ask you some silly questions.
01:18:58.239 --> 01:19:05.520
Some of them are silly, some of them are funny and cool, and uh, and we're just uh you just answer however you want.
01:19:05.680 --> 01:19:08.159
Um, so um, do you want to go first?
01:19:08.319 --> 01:19:08.720
Yep.
01:19:08.960 --> 01:19:12.960
Alright, so do fans still ask you to blow the whistle all the time?
01:19:13.439 --> 01:19:14.880
Yes, and I do.
01:19:15.119 --> 01:19:22.399
All these conventions that I go to and wrestle cons and and uh shows that I do for like John Thorne in Cleveland.
01:19:22.479 --> 01:19:24.479
I've been going to Cleveland for five years.
01:19:24.720 --> 01:19:27.119
I'm working for this company called CCW.
01:19:27.279 --> 01:19:30.560
Yeah, I blow my whistle all the time and I I blow it for them.
01:19:32.560 --> 01:19:36.479
What is the strangest autograph request you've ever gotten?
01:19:37.359 --> 01:19:42.800
A girl asked me to, and believe me, I've never kissed this girl.
01:19:42.960 --> 01:19:44.079
I barely knew her.
01:19:44.159 --> 01:19:45.920
I've seen her a couple of times at a show.
01:19:46.000 --> 01:19:48.800
She asked me to sign her chest right here, right?
01:19:49.039 --> 01:19:49.760
So I signed it.
01:19:49.840 --> 01:19:54.880
Bill Fonzi Alfonso, pretty cool signature, got a pretty cool signature.
01:19:55.199 --> 01:20:01.279
And the next time I was in that town, the girl had it tattooed on her chest.
01:20:01.439 --> 01:20:04.960
I never kissed her, I never dated her, I never did nothing.
01:20:05.279 --> 01:20:08.399
She was just a I guess she liked Fonzi.
01:20:08.880 --> 01:20:10.560
That was actually gonna be our next question.
01:20:10.720 --> 01:20:14.479
If you ever had an autograph turned into a tattoo, so I'm gonna go.
01:20:14.880 --> 01:20:16.640
That was the girl, I couldn't believe it.
01:20:16.800 --> 01:20:19.520
I got a picture of uh on my phone of her.
01:20:19.680 --> 01:20:21.600
A real nice looking girl, too.
01:20:21.840 --> 01:20:22.720
I couldn't believe it.
01:20:23.199 --> 01:20:30.159
Nobody I tell people that story, I tell my family, my daughter, and my wife, and tell some my friends, yeah, yeah, right, Foncia.
01:20:30.399 --> 01:20:32.479
A girl got a tattoo of your name on her chest.
01:20:32.960 --> 01:20:33.840
That's true.
01:20:34.640 --> 01:20:40.399
If you were stuck on a deserted island, what three wrestlers would you want to be on the island with?
01:20:41.840 --> 01:20:44.560
Damn, uh, right now or anytime in history?
01:20:44.720 --> 01:20:45.279
Anytime in history.
01:20:45.520 --> 01:20:46.159
Anytime in history.
01:20:46.399 --> 01:20:54.800
I would happen, somebody who knew how if we were stuck on the island and we couldn't get off, I'd want somebody like a survivalist like Steve Kern.
01:20:55.039 --> 01:20:56.720
Remember Allegander Steve Kern?
01:20:57.039 --> 01:20:57.680
Yep.
01:20:58.319 --> 01:21:01.520
Crocodile Hunter or whatever, uh Steve Kern drew.
01:21:01.840 --> 01:21:06.800
Uh uh, I'd have somebody that was uh funny to entertain us.
01:21:06.880 --> 01:21:11.520
Uh I would probably have Dusty on there because he was always funny and entertaining.
01:21:11.600 --> 01:21:19.840
And I would have uh one of the girls, maybe Missy Hyde, Sonny, uh, you know, Francine, Beula, one of the girls with us.
01:21:20.239 --> 01:21:22.000
So it's your three, there's your three.
01:21:23.439 --> 01:21:28.560
Um favorite road companion of all time, John Gonzalez.
01:21:29.600 --> 01:21:29.760
Yeah.
01:21:30.159 --> 01:21:30.319
Okay.
01:21:30.479 --> 01:21:30.800
Yeah.
01:21:31.039 --> 01:21:35.039
John Gonzalez spent three years on a road every day together.
01:21:35.199 --> 01:21:37.840
Uh, and then if we weren't on a road, we were together.
01:21:38.079 --> 01:21:49.039
We got long freaking fantastic, and it was a pleasure being with one of God's gifts to the planet, you know, one of the tallest guys in the world.
01:21:49.359 --> 01:21:49.920
All right.
01:21:50.239 --> 01:21:52.640
Favorite arena you ever worked in?
01:21:53.039 --> 01:21:58.319
Madison Square Gardens, uh, the most famous, and I loved it.
01:21:58.479 --> 01:22:07.840
Of course, the famous ECW arena in Philadelphia, and uh, I did enjoy working in front of 65,000 people in the Tokyo Dome.
01:22:08.960 --> 01:22:11.119
There's so many different arenas, you know.
01:22:11.199 --> 01:22:16.319
We're going out to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Forum, which isn't there anymore.
01:22:16.479 --> 01:22:31.039
Uh, you know, I got to work some great buildings uh in my day, Miami Beach Convention Center, uh Tampa, Fort Homer, Hesterly Armory, where we ran every Tuesday night for 30 years before me and after me.
01:22:31.199 --> 01:22:37.840
Uh, but Madison Square, maybe the most famous and one of my uh favorite places.
01:22:38.079 --> 01:22:38.560
All right.
01:22:38.800 --> 01:22:42.239
What's the loudest crowd you ever experienced?
01:22:44.479 --> 01:22:54.319
Um, well, um, you would think it'd be the 65,000 people in Tokyo, but the Japanese clap, you know, they don't holler.
01:22:54.399 --> 01:22:57.600
Like I said, you know, a big movement and everybody claps.
01:22:57.840 --> 01:23:02.560
Uh ECW had a real loud crowd.
01:23:02.720 --> 01:23:08.800
You know, it was a small, small arena held a thousand people, you know, we sold it out all the time.
01:23:08.960 --> 01:23:17.760
And for those thousand people to be jammed in at the ECW arena, I think they had the most enthusiastic crowd, and uh they were the loudest.
01:23:18.560 --> 01:23:28.640
How was it the night that um Sabu returned to ECW and uh you know the lights went out, they came on, and that that big pop.
01:23:28.880 --> 01:23:32.880
I mean, would would you compare that as to one of the loudest times in ECW?
01:23:33.600 --> 01:23:40.560
Uh what I would say one of the loudest because we had quite a few lights off lights on, like Jerry Lawler.
01:23:40.640 --> 01:23:40.720
Yeah.
01:23:43.920 --> 01:23:47.439
Of course, the sabo was phenomenal, lights off lights on.
01:23:47.680 --> 01:23:52.720
Uh we had some pr pr pretty cool uh stuff like that, yeah.
01:23:54.000 --> 01:23:56.319
Best Indiana Jones movie.
01:23:58.800 --> 01:24:03.920
Um I think I've I guess maybe the first one that started off the franchise.
01:24:04.000 --> 01:24:06.159
They had multi multiple ones, right?
01:24:06.479 --> 01:24:06.880
Yeah.
01:24:07.119 --> 01:24:07.439
Yeah.
01:24:07.600 --> 01:24:08.159
All right.
01:24:08.640 --> 01:24:10.880
Who is the best James Bond?
01:24:12.880 --> 01:24:18.159
Um damn the original uh damn I um I said his name yesterday.
01:24:18.399 --> 01:24:19.359
Sean Connery.
01:24:19.520 --> 01:24:20.640
Um who?
01:24:21.279 --> 01:24:22.800
Sean Connery was the original.
01:24:22.880 --> 01:24:23.920
Yeah, Sean Connery, yeah.
01:24:24.319 --> 01:24:28.560
Drove that 1964 Maserati, whatever that was.
01:24:28.720 --> 01:24:34.319
I think I it wasn't a Maserati, it was something, but uh love that, yeah.
01:24:34.720 --> 01:24:38.159
And of course all the other ones were great, but you know, the original.
01:24:39.199 --> 01:24:43.359
Now we've asked you well, we've asked everybody this.
01:24:43.600 --> 01:24:47.840
Uh and now this is the question, and he says there is a right answer to this.
01:24:48.079 --> 01:24:50.640
There is absolutely a right answer to this question.
01:24:50.800 --> 01:24:53.680
Does pineapple belong in a pizza?
01:24:54.960 --> 01:24:58.960
Well, I guess it depends what part of the world you're in.
01:24:59.039 --> 01:25:07.840
And I've had pineapple on my pizza and have enjoyed it, but I do not regularly order uh pineapple on my pizza.
01:25:08.000 --> 01:25:17.760
I'm a pepperoni guy, I'm a double cheese guy, but I have eaten pineapple on my pizza, and people love it, and but you don't hear about it all the time.
01:25:17.920 --> 01:25:28.079
It's not a, you know, I've been a you know, a thousand, ordered a thousand pizzas with different people in their homes, and uh, and hardly anybody orders pineapple.
01:25:28.399 --> 01:25:29.439
So I consider this a pie.
01:25:29.920 --> 01:25:31.600
I'm gonna call it we're gonna call that a draw.
01:25:31.680 --> 01:25:32.960
Yeah, break down that's a draw.
01:25:33.279 --> 01:25:34.880
Right down the middle from Fonzie.
01:25:35.039 --> 01:25:35.680
Yeah, right down the middle.
01:25:38.880 --> 01:25:40.399
He called it right down the middle.
01:25:40.800 --> 01:25:42.239
Right down the middle.
01:25:42.640 --> 01:25:58.560
Um, real quick, um, and I usually don't do this, but on your screen, uh, I see uh um uh a picture frame, digital picture frame, and every once in a while I see uh uh um Ox Baker on it.
01:25:58.720 --> 01:26:00.399
Uh uh Did you know Ox?
01:26:00.560 --> 01:26:13.840
I have a friend named Mark Lucia uh in Connecticut who uh because Ox lived in Brooklyn, Connecticut, and my friend Mark would have breakfast with him almost every morning for a long time before Ox passed away.
01:26:14.079 --> 01:26:16.239
What's your memories of Ox Baker?
01:26:17.840 --> 01:27:00.079
Being quite the scary character, and I really didn't know I was young when I broke in, you know, I was in my early 20s and working for Florida Championship Wrestling, and Ox was one of the people that they would bring in occasionally, like, you know, they bring in a world champion for the week, they bring in Andre for the week, they bring in the Moolah for the week, they bring in a minute, they bring in a character like Abdullah the Butcher, and then they'd bring in Ox Baker as a character to work the loop with the the big baby face, and and uh you don't know if he was a shooter, you know, back then people believed the people wanted to believe the business was a shoot, and you didn't know.
01:27:00.239 --> 01:27:03.359
Say, damn, is wrestling real or is it a work?
01:27:03.439 --> 01:27:05.199
You know, now it's sports entertainment.
01:27:05.680 --> 01:27:09.920
Pinch turk took the word wrestling, this worldwide entertainment.
01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:12.560
It's not worldwide wrestling anymore.
01:27:12.800 --> 01:27:18.159
Uh, but Oxbaker with that great heart punch, and he wasn't that great of a worker, you know.
01:27:18.319 --> 01:27:27.600
He wasn't uh doing, he just did big man stuff, and and he was a pretty big cat, but he was a little scary, but uh basically a pretty good guy.
01:27:28.079 --> 01:27:28.560
Pretty good guy.
01:27:28.800 --> 01:27:29.359
I heard that.
01:27:29.439 --> 01:27:41.680
And I worked around the scariness and worked around being up, you know, after I got to know him for a while and being one of the characters, uh, we got along pretty good, and he was pleasant, educated, smart, nice guy.
01:27:41.840 --> 01:27:42.479
Yeah.
01:27:43.359 --> 01:27:47.039
Yeah, I always liked his eyebrows and his facial hair was always just crazy.
01:27:47.840 --> 01:27:48.479
Crazy, you know.
01:27:48.640 --> 01:27:49.039
Yes.
01:27:49.199 --> 01:27:49.439
Yeah.
01:27:49.680 --> 01:27:51.359
He had quite the look, didn't he?
01:27:51.600 --> 01:27:51.920
He did.
01:27:52.079 --> 01:27:52.399
He did.
01:27:52.560 --> 01:27:53.119
He did.
01:27:53.359 --> 01:27:53.920
Yeah.
01:27:54.079 --> 01:27:56.800
Um, and that is gonna do it for us.
01:27:56.960 --> 01:27:57.359
Yes.
01:27:57.520 --> 01:28:00.479
I we want to thank our guest, Bill Alfonso.
01:28:00.960 --> 01:28:02.000
Appreciate it.
01:28:02.159 --> 01:28:04.960
This this was an awesome, awesome time.
01:28:05.520 --> 01:28:07.039
And uh thank you, Bill.
01:28:07.119 --> 01:28:08.079
Thanks for coming on.
01:28:08.239 --> 01:28:09.119
Thank you, Bill.
01:28:09.680 --> 01:28:22.399
Hey, I I really appreciate uh being one of the uh first couple guys as uh you asked to be on your podcast, and I have nothing but uh good feelings about you guys.
01:28:22.560 --> 01:28:24.319
I love the studio look.
01:28:24.640 --> 01:28:28.479
Uh, you guys both love the business as much as I do or more.
01:28:29.039 --> 01:28:31.520
So that's why I think you guys are gonna be successful.
01:28:31.680 --> 01:28:38.079
And uh so congratulations on starting back uh with your podcast, guys.
01:28:38.399 --> 01:28:38.800
Thank you.
01:28:38.960 --> 01:28:39.199
Thank you.
01:28:41.520 --> 01:28:43.840
For Johnny O and Josh O.
01:28:44.239 --> 01:28:44.560
Goodbye.
01:28:49.680 --> 01:28:51.279
Goodbye, everybody.
01:29:50.319 --> 01:29:51.840
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01:29:52.800 --> 01:29:55.279
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01:29:55.520 --> 01:29:58.640
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01:29:58.800 --> 01:30:04.239
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01:30:04.640 --> 01:30:05.680
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01:30:09.600 --> 01:30:14.880
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01:30:15.119 --> 01:30:17.439
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01:30:17.600 --> 01:30:19.520
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01:30:19.680 --> 01:30:24.560
And don't forget to tell them that Double Axe handle smash podcast session.
