Interview with WCW's Lash LeRoux - FROM THE VAULT

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Yeah, as Daniel Podcast, The Doctor Show, Fucking Delenda What
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Today March.
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Welcome everyone to a very special major wrestling for your podcast.
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I'm your host, Matt Cardona, Brian is here, small Mark
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Strolling is here. But our guest today w c W
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Legend Lash LaRue Lash.
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What's up, my man?
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I'm good man. How in the world are you guys doing.
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It's good to see you again to my friend. And
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I don't know if I've met the other.
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JEMs or not, so corporal ocasion if I will. I
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was thinking about this today. I think we missed you
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in Deep South by like weeks.
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Probably, So I think that sounds.
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About right, man, because like.
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You know, at a time, there were some new guys
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were in there, not just new guys, but the new
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generation was sort of coming in while an old generation.
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Was going out, right, So we got signed in uh
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early two thousand and six, and then we reported like
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that spring, and I recall, like you know, and these
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people that we met there, like Luke Alo's and stuff that, yes,
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we had just missed like you and Jindrak, So we
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didn't get like interact with you guys, but we had
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just missed you guys or we would have been been
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De South alumni together.
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That's exactly right. So my Deep South roots go even
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deeper than that because Deep South, you know, was sort
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of the genesis of what was the power plant in
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WW and so that's what kind of got me calling
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calling me back there to Deep South a little bit.
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And that was my last more last kind of big
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hurrah to try to make one more splash before Rodeolph
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in Sunset.
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I guess for lack.
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Of right back with Jody Hamilton. Were it all started
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for you?
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That's exactly right.
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Man's Amanda Pleedge Jody Assassin professional wrestling.
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That's what I call it.
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Awesome.
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So we actually just met at aw a couple weeks.
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Ago, correct, Yeah, you and I did absolutely well. Yes, yes,
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that was uh that was after or either before or after.
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I think I walked down there a little rattle, but yeah.
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Well you locked walked out of the locker room and
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everybody said, wow, he's still jacked.
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The best comment I got on that was from Les
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Thatcher who saw me last November and less goes.
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Wow, look at you kid.
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You wait until you got out of the business to
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get in shape.
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I saw you at a at Starcast I couldn't believe
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how jacked you were and you had just worked at
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the night before, right.
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Yeah, yeah, well yeah, I'll be honest with you guys,
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but yeah, I feel like you guys are being way
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too But it's just it's one of those things.
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I went on this journey and my life and I'm
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not going to try to wax philosophical on it. But
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you know how the wrestling business is, and not to
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jump in the deep end too quickly, but man, it
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takes you way way up to the highest highs and.
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It takes you to the lowest low We know.
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So little of yourself if you let it. And you
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won't believe this, man, But about twenty sixteen, I weighed
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three hundred and sixteen pounds. I turned forty years old,
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and yeah, yeah, man, I let the injuries.
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I like the depression.
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I like to being out of the business for eight
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almost ten years kind of get to me.
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And I didn't have to take my shirt off of
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National TV anymore. That was plus. But you know, you
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also you take medication to cover up injuries and things
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like that.
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And I woke up at forty years old, man, I go,
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you know what this is not sustainable, and I just decided, Man,
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I'm gonna do something about it right now. And I've
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never had an addictive personality, so any medication I was
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taking was more physical than it was psychological for me.
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So I dropped all that cold turkey started just trying
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to lose weight. I lost one hundred pounds and went
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from three sixteen to to eleven before I got back
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in the gym, fell back in love with working out,
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and just just just love to love how I feel now.
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I love where that circle has sort of brought me.
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And man, just to say, it took me about a
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year and a half to do it. Man, But before
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I lost that weight, dude, I looked like a Russian
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nesting doll.
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I looked like last.
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That's awesome.
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Well, I mean you look you look fucking great now.
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And when I saw you at Sarcas, you had just
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worked for GCW. So are you back in the ring
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or what's going on here?
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So far that's been a one off man, So to
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be honest with you, Matt, here's the deal. Man. The
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way that that whole thing happened for me was.
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This, When I left the wrestling business, I truly left
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the wrestling business. I literally, you know, and that thing
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is a cumulative effect. I mean, for most people, unless
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you've been extremely blessed in this wrestling business, you don't
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sit there and plan out your retirement, right, you sit
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there and you go it just hits you one day,
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or you get a back, that injury that's taking you
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out of the ring, or maybe more often than not,
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I think it's a combination.
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Of all those things. Right, it's in three and those
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things start mounting up, while at the same time, maybe
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the phone's ringing a little less, while at the same
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time you're thinking.
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A lot less of your work and who you are
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and your value as a wrestler and where your place
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is in the business. And mentally you get down and
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you get down and you get down till one day
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you just decide, Man, this ain't for me anymore. And
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you've got a million excuses why it's not. And it
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could be the injuries, it could be you know, any
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other issues that come along. And for me, man, I'm
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wrestling and a little independent in Alabama and I'm wrestling
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Bull bu Cannon and we were the main event. Yeah,
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and I know me at Barry's gonna have a great
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batch so I'll walk up to him and I said, dude,
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you're gonna be my last match. I'm retiring tonight. Of
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course you are, yeah, and he just hugs me, laughs
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about it. His reactions about to say, as yours. I
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literally had that match. We finished the match, I rolled
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out of the ring. I didn't cut up promo, I
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didn't do anything, and I never got a ring again
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until thirteen years later, which was about this past July.
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I think it was.
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You know, I do the podcast with Conrad Thompson, the
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whole ad free show thing, and he did his Top
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Guy weekend up and Hunt's fa Alabama, which is not
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too far from me, and he knows I don't do
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autograph signing. I wasn't doing appearances. I wasn't wrestling. I
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wasn't taking any bookings because when I swore off wrestling
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and said I was done with wrestling, I was done
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with all of it. And and you know, I very
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rarely even did interviews like this, and so I went
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to draw.
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Caricatures for him.
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He talked to me into that he goes just draw
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caricatures and be kind of in the corner. So I
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interacted with the fans forgot how awesome it is interacting
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with the fans man when they're genuine and it's good
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and they love you and appreciate you.
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So I'm just drawing all day and keeping my mouth shut. Meanwhile,
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they did this mock indie show where they had Eric Bischoff,
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Jeff Jarrett, you know, road Dog, and these guy Kevin
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Sullivan get together and book a show based on the
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local talent that they had, and then they put on
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the show in front of the fans. So long story short,
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at the end of the day, when we got through wrestling,
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or they got through having the show, it was over.
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The building's empty, the ring was empty. We're all about
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to leave.
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And I looked at Conrad and I go, you know,
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I haven't even taken a bump or been in a
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ring in thirteen years.
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And he goes, there's no way. I go, yeah, trust
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and I need to get in there and just take
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a balt see what it feels like. Yeah.
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I stepped in the ring. Kyle took a back bump,
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and I went, man, you know that didn't feel too bad.
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I backed up into the corner, just took one step
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and took a front bump and went that's all right,
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grab one of the guys that had a max that night,
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shot him in the ropes through a dropkick and the
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hot for there Tomy was there, hit him right on
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the nose and it felt like riding the bike.
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And so I popped up and Conrad's filming this whole thing,
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because he goes, you, legit, haven't been in the ring
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in thirteen years ago. This is fresh, so it's raw.
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He sticks the microphone my face. I looked at it
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and I went, man, I'm here for a little bit
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of fun my dad and the son. Maybe one more run.
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I ain't done. I ain't done. I then I realized
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that have the sidebirds No but.
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Still, and he plastered it up on Twitter and it
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got a little bit of traction. And I got a
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call from GCW and Brett Lauderdale and hey, what about.
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Having one more match and when we do star Cast.
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And at the same time Conrad was asking me to
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be a part of star Cast. So I'd be there
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for the weekend anyway, maybe get to see some old
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friends at ae W and just see what shakes down.
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You know, at least I won't be fifty.
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Five wondering if I could have had one more run
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so so far that's been the only match and the
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only time out.
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Wow, I mean, man, you wrestled Joey Janella?
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Right, yeah, sure did. Man. We did about fifteen minutes
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and whoa, just the splits, the whole deal. You know,
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I was. I was shot first time in the ring.
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I promise you, guys, man, and now I'm one of
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those guys I believe playing this game of life with
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your cards face up and being completely transparent. I didn't
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get in the ring and buff around. I didn't train around.
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I didn't have time because.
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My character sinned.
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My artwork is so busy, and I'm on the road
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so much. I just slim in the ring. I said,
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let's go out there and see what happens.
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You know, now, do you have that match? You know?
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Are you bit by that wrestling bug again? Do you
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want to have another match? Or what's the deal? Are
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you just playing it by ears? Staying in shape? See
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what happens?
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All the above, Matt, Because here's the weird thing, and
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you know, not that Brown knows or anything like that,
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but being completely honest with you. As I get older,
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one of the things I really am impressed with when
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I watch you, and I'm admired from afar is how
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you're handling the business aspect of the wrestling business, because
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I truly believe that one of the problems with my
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generation of wrestlers was this. We came in during the
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contract era and came in during the era of television,
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and and you know, trying to make the spot and
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learn to be a TV wrestler. That we all became
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pretty good wrestling talents. For us to be on that level,
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I mean, you learn how to work on match, you
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learn the psychology, you learn to be a good worker,
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but you really don't learn the wrestling business.
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And man, I didn't realize that after I was out
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of it, you know.
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And as I get older, you know, you spend the
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first half of your career being about the wrestling aspect
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of the wrestling business. Just give me a shot, give
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me some TV time, put me in the ring, dude,
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I'll get over and then the money will come later.
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And now the money don't always come later, you know.
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And as you get widow gets smaller and smaller, man, dude,
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you go, I better start thinking about the business side
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of things. And I'm blessed now that I work so
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hard to build up this caricature business that I have
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that I honestly do as well off of it right
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now as I did when I wrestled for WCW financially.
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Oh yeah, and I would love to make one more run.
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I would love to marry those things together from a
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branding perspective to make myself more desirable to book as
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a caricature artist. But you know, I have to balance
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that thing where if someone like g c W comes
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calling and they want to they want me to do
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a one off match or an indie promotion invites me out,
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I'm I'm flattered by that.
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I love that. I want to be a part of it.
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But oftentimes I can make more.
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Money going and drawing that day than I can going
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and drawing in the ring.
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Well I love that.
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So for a lot of people that might not know
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what what is the what is the drawing business? What
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exactly are you doing right now?
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I always remember your your spots in WW magazine from
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when I was in high.
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School exactly you doo of it all, man, dude.
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Here's the thing is the way it all started for
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me was I was a big fan growing up of
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Mad magazine. Like I loved artwork, and I always loved
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to draw, and uh, that was never a big mark
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for comic books. I love the characters in the comic books.
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But if you came to me showed me that you
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drew Batman, dude, he's got a square ahead and a
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lot of details. You're not impressing me with your artistic
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00:11:53.240 --> 00:11:56.879
ability on that one. You know, the storytelling is phenomenal,
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00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:59.720
but the face itself, you know, when I'm tracing those
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things out of a comic book, that didn't impress me
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as much as Mad magazine that would spoofed these movies
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and TV shows and for that to work, just like
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the actor or the wrestler, or if they put Hogan
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on the cover or whatever, and you're going, wow, you
274
00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.000
don't even have to tell me that that's Tom Cruise
275
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.559
in Top Gun. That looks just freaking like Tom Cruise.
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00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:20.840
So I carried that with me when I wrestled for WCW.
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You know, you guys know how it is. You got
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to be in a different town every night. You got
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to be at the building at nude for a show
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that doesn't go live on TV.
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Until seven pm. You got some time, you.
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Know, unless you're playing cards or doing something else. I
283
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started looking at those dry erase boards in the back
284
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and I bought me a pack of markers and began
285
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just drawing the guys in the back and Kurt hitting
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00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:47.919
of course, you know, being the consummate river that he was.
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00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:51.879
Anything that is humorous like that, that kind of pokes
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the bear he loves, and he's going to encourage and
289
00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:57.159
he'd sit there man constantly go draw, Hogan.
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Okay, I'm like two years old, and he's going, now draw,
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I'm really old, drawing with an oxygen mask walker and
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oh boy, Yeah, he gave me this great line that
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he said, hey, look, you tell me you don't write
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the news. You just reported. And so you know, Bill
295
00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:17.759
After and Ross Foreman and some other publishers and editors
296
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for wrestling the magazines saw that, and that started me
297
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doing the cartoons. Well.
298
00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:25.440
It was very forgiving for me because at that point
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I was not a professional artist. I was a wrestler
300
00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:30.559
that could sort of draw. So that was the pull
301
00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:34.120
and the novelty, and I parlayed that over the course
302
00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:36.320
of about ten or twelve years of doing that month
303
00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:39.000
in a month out and teaching myself to be better
304
00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:43.120
and better into me having some skills when I left wrestling,
305
00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:47.080
and so I would early two thousands to answer the
306
00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:50.120
question a little bit more directly about the caricature business.
307
00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:51.799
Everybody had a blog.
308
00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:56.080
So all these caricature artists that I hadn'tmired, including Mad
309
00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:59.639
magazine artists and guys like that Theme Park caricature artist,
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00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:02.159
all of them, they would have these blogs and they
311
00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:04.639
post their working man just like a mark. I'd send
312
00:14:04.679 --> 00:14:07.159
them a little message and go, hey, dude, why'd you
313
00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:09.279
draw this nose like this? And this is really cool?
314
00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:11.440
Here's my drawing. What do you think about this? You
315
00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:14.919
got any kind of advice or encouragement? In ninety percent
316
00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:16.720
of the time, to be honest, you know, not to
317
00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:21.120
Most of their reactions would be wait a second, is
318
00:14:21.159 --> 00:14:21.480
this last?
319
00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.080
LaRue the wrestler and Big Wrestlings fan.
320
00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:27.320
They start asking me about wrestling, and I go, ask
321
00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:29.080
me anything you want about wrestling, as long as I
322
00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:30.279
can ask you about caricature.
323
00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.320
And then I found out caricature artists have a union.
324
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:34.879
They've got an organization.
325
00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:39.559
Yes, yes, this man, you gotta way better than being
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00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:40.159
one of the boys.
327
00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:42.519
Jesus, Well, here's the thing, man, you're one of the boys.
328
00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:44.559
Here's what I hated about Edie wrestling.
329
00:14:44.600 --> 00:14:46.639
And again it goes back to why I admire what
330
00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:49.240
you doing so much, madness that the thing I hated
331
00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:51.519
the most about when the phone did bring is having
332
00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:53.879
to talk to a promoter and sit there and value
333
00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:56.200
myself on what I think I can get from the
334
00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.519
promoter versus what the promoter's going to try to pay
335
00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:01.960
me and then go back and then you worry about
336
00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:06.519
overpricing yourself, and you worry about under pricing yourself. Man
337
00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:09.200
for me, and there there's a standard market rate for
338
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:12.639
caricature artists, and they know what they've got. So if
339
00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:14.840
I don't charge what the standard rate is, I get
340
00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:17.679
blackballed because now I'm undercutting all the other boys in
341
00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:19.200
the business.
342
00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:19.799
That's crazy.
343
00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.320
They don't want me around, you know. And so we
344
00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:24.799
all kind of work together in that regard. And so
345
00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:28.480
I do caricatures. I do black and white version on
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00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:30.679
paper like you see at a theme park that's really
347
00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:33.639
really fast. Or I do a digital version where I
348
00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:35.879
draw directly on an iPad, I have a flat screen
349
00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:38.320
TV behind me. I print it out four by six
350
00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:40.919
on a little lanyard and the name tag people wear
351
00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.039
at these uh at these shows and these trade shows
352
00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:48.519
are their caricature plus the company's name imprinted on there,
353
00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.399
plus the booth number and the whole deal. And more
354
00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.720
often than not, I also get recognized from wrestling, so
355
00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:55.840
they feel like they get a two fur. So they'll
356
00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:57.639
fly me all over the United States and do a
357
00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:01.879
three day deal there and and work their booth to
358
00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:04.399
try to compete with the other boos and draw people
359
00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:04.919
to their booth.
360
00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:07.720
How much money can you get done in like a day,
361
00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:09.440
like at what's the most amount of Like?
362
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.200
Yeah, so this is generally what I average. I average
363
00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:16.120
one face when I'm doing black and white really quick,
364
00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:17.879
just on a sheet of paper, and I do it
365
00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:19.879
on a twelve by eighteen sheet of paper with just
366
00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:22.799
a Crayola marker. And man, I just did them yesterday,
367
00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:25.840
did a wedding last night Memphis. I do one face
368
00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:27.080
every three and a half minutes.
369
00:16:27.720 --> 00:16:32.200
That, yeah, that's exactly right. It's fast. You have to
370
00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.320
be because I do a lot of campus Arkansas.
371
00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:39.360
State on Wednesday, and so as soon as you show up,
372
00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:41.039
they know the caricature artists is going to be there.
373
00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:44.480
They'll be five hundred deep in students and you're there
374
00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:46.399
for four hours, and it's one person right up the
375
00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:47.080
other man, just.
376
00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:48.639
Boom boom, boom, boom boom.
377
00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:52.120
And then when I do the digital, the digital is
378
00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.519
full color, it's a little bit more involved.
379
00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:57.840
It takes me probably about eight minutes to draw each person.
380
00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:01.679
And so these companies will book me out for volume
381
00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:05.279
and quality, man, and and for the interaction and just
382
00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:08.319
an experience for their guests to have this thing going
383
00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:11.039
on at whatever party, event or anything it is.
384
00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:12.240
Man and I get paid by the hour.
385
00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:14.000
Oh my god.
386
00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.559
The Connie and me is thinking, oh my god, why
387
00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:19.960
are you not at every wrestling convention charge of these marks,
388
00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:24.599
like Jimmy comes up, you draw Jimmy, you sign it.
389
00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:27.119
Steve comes up, yet, you draw Steve, you sign it.
390
00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:28.720
And then you're eight your eight by tens a right
391
00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:31.200
there too. If they want to, you know, buy that there.
392
00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:34.240
It is ready to go. That's exactly right. And I
393
00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:36.960
tried to kind of I've thought about that for a long.
394
00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:40.119
Period of time, and I've tried to make that happen
395
00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:41.640
a little bit there at star Cast when I was
396
00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.559
just a couple of tables down from you, Matt, and
397
00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:45.599
I don't think people quite got it yet, you.
398
00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:46.119
Know what I mean.
399
00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:50.359
And that's the other thing that will happen. Sometimes I'll
400
00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:54.559
go to a wedding. Weddings are really big right now,
401
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:58.079
but most people haven't realized it's become a thing in weddings.
402
00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:00.279
So all go into the cocktail hour and most people
403
00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:01.759
will walk by and they think you're gonna make fun
404
00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:03.799
of them. They think it's like the TikTok videos where
405
00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:06.599
you u's nothing but a big schnoz and the goat
406
00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:07.720
keys and the whole deal.
407
00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:09.759
And so they walk buy and they go, hey, you
408
00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:12.880
want to draw it, and they'll go maybe later, Well,
409
00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:15.279
you'll get a couple of brave people be the first
410
00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.240
people to sit down, and once they see the quality
411
00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:21.440
and they see what you're turning, everybody starts lining up.
412
00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:23.240
You got to get a few out there, you know.
413
00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:24.759
Wow?
414
00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:28.200
And how did this turn into a podcast? And especially
415
00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:29.759
one with Conrad on his network?
416
00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:35.000
So Conrad hit me up pre covid, I would say
417
00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:37.240
maybe a year year and a half before when he
418
00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:40.480
was first talking about doing the paywall and doing adfree
419
00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:42.759
shows dot com, and he hit me with the idea
420
00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:46.079
of finding out a way to do where I could
421
00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.519
draw a live for the wrestling fans and talk about
422
00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:51.680
whatever it is I'm drawing, and he kind of had
423
00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:55.039
the genesis and the idea for the show. And at
424
00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:56.920
that time, Man, I was just in a place where
425
00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:00.920
I still was a bidder is toong of a word, man,
426
00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:03.440
because I've never been a bitter person in my life
427
00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:03.799
at all.
428
00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:04.480
I just have it.
429
00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:07.680
But you know, I just didn't feel good about wrestling, man,
430
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:09.559
And I didn't want to have anything to do with wrestling,
431
00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.200
and I didn't want to do anything even remotely connected
432
00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.359
to wrestling. And the excuse I would give to him,
433
00:19:14.359 --> 00:19:16.319
and give to anybody else that would listen, was this,
434
00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:18.839
I don't want to be around the wrestling business. And
435
00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.119
if I do a podcast, it's going to lead to interviews.
436
00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:23.200
If I do interviews, it's going to lead to promos.
437
00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:26.039
Promo is going to lead to autograph signings. Autograph signings
438
00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:28.240
are going to lead to me having matches. Matches are
439
00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:29.839
going to lead to me back in the business.
440
00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.279
Again, this sounds.
441
00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:36.160
Yeah, which is exactly what eventually wind up happening. Right,
442
00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:39.720
So I said no the first time, and then they
443
00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:43.359
hit me up about two years later, and uh right
444
00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:46.400
right in the towards the end of COVID, I think
445
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:48.799
is when they started hitting me up about asking about
446
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:50.440
doing We've been doing the podcast, I think now for
447
00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.480
about two years, and uh, in that time, it felt
448
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:55.200
right At that Tommy was right. I was in a
449
00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:55.839
better place.
450
00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:58.000
I had my feet underneath me a little bit more
451
00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.960
where I had to have done enough digital that I
452
00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:03.200
had an idea of my mind of what that podcast
453
00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:06.400
could look like. And I still don't feel like I
454
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:09.440
have done it complete justice yet. In fact, I've just
455
00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:12.519
built a studio in my house, just one room over
456
00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.759
from where I'm at right now, where I'm trying to
457
00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:17.119
equip that out and get the right equipment, the right
458
00:20:17.160 --> 00:20:20.000
sound equipment, the right cameras, because I think that there's
459
00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:21.519
a way where I could do it where my entire
460
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:24.400
behind me would be the green screen so people can
461
00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:27.039
see what I'm drawing as I'm drawing it live.
462
00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:27.720
You know.
463
00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:30.680
I think there's a lot of opportunities there. But that's
464
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:32.440
how it kind of turned.
465
00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:35.440
Into us doing this podcast, and that turned into me
466
00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:36.799
interacting with fans again.
467
00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:39.359
And I remembered, man that you.
468
00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:41.079
Know, when you push all the bad stuff away and
469
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:43.880
you get away from the negativity, and you distilled the
470
00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:47.599
wrestling business now to its purest form, which is are
471
00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:49.079
the fans enjoying what I'm doing?
472
00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:51.319
Is it getting over? Is the interaction here?
473
00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:55.240
We're making that connection whatever it is, whether I want
474
00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:56.880
them to fear me, or I want them to love me,
475
00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:58.079
or I want them to laugh at me, or I
476
00:20:58.119 --> 00:21:00.799
want them to hate me, whatever that connect is. Man,
477
00:21:00.839 --> 00:21:03.559
Once you get that back and it's genuine and you're
478
00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:05.880
being yourself and they're they're accepting it.
479
00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:09.920
Man, they're giving you that feedback. They know the language back.
480
00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:10.319
You know.
481
00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:13.119
Wow, I forgot how good this can be when it's good.
482
00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:14.039
Mm hmm.
483
00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:16.519
Well I'm glad you're you're back in the business and
484
00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:18.039
you're all positive. But I do have to bring up
485
00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:23.359
one negative thing. No wrestling figures, no action figure.
486
00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:27.759
Never got a figure, Yeah yeah, you got figure out.
487
00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:29.480
The only ones I've got are the ones that are
488
00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:31.759
kind of indie made, I guess were lack of a
489
00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:33.880
better way of putting it. You know that that people
490
00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:35.880
through the years have just kind of made the tribute
491
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:41.480
action figures, iizing stuff, you know, And again that goes
492
00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:44.160
back to the business minded me. One of the things
493
00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:46.200
I've thought about about trying to make one more run
494
00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:49.599
is I would just like to be relevant enough, you know,
495
00:21:49.799 --> 00:21:52.440
to have that little bit of merchandise. I've learned to
496
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:55.720
appreciate mailbox money when you're not actually bumping.
497
00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.440
Just go out there, and I need more of that.
498
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:04.039
Yeah, So let's let's backtrack a little bit, because you know,
499
00:22:04.359 --> 00:22:07.599
obviously you were a WCW. Were you a fan growing
500
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:10.119
up or was this you watch on TV and you're like, WHOA,
501
00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.599
I can get into this because you were you were
502
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:14.279
you started the power plant, right.
503
00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:18.400
Yeah, absolutely, and so extraordinary story if you guys don't
504
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:19.480
mind me telling it, if.
505
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:21.920
You'll showl with me for a second. But when I
506
00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:23.359
was a kid, I was a huge fan.
507
00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.799
I'm younger than most people probably think I am because
508
00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:29.599
I started the wrestling business so young.
509
00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:32.240
And I also, for whatever reason, got tight casted with
510
00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:33.359
the older guys.
511
00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:35.920
Like even when they brought it in the new Blood and WCW,
512
00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:38.039
the new Blood were all ten years older than I
513
00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:41.359
was at the time. Started when I was like eighteen,
514
00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:43.920
I was youngest guy WCW had under contract at the
515
00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:47.440
time when I started, and I you know, I started
516
00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:49.920
about eighteen, retired when I was about thirty two or
517
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:53.960
something like that. I'm forty six now forty seven. Yeah,
518
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.160
So I just I got I got in early and
519
00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.359
got out young. And that's why most people when they
520
00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:01.640
think back to the nineties, they think I must be
521
00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:02.839
older than I really am.
522
00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.519
I would have thought that too, until I looked at
523
00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:08.599
your Wikipedia today exactly.
524
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:10.160
So I was a child of the eighties, and I
525
00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:12.240
was a whole a maniac like everybody else, and was
526
00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:15.839
there for WrestleMania one and the WrestleMania three and all
527
00:23:15.880 --> 00:23:19.519
these iconic stepping stones and wrestling and became a huge
528
00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:23.000
wrestling fan all throughout my childhood. But I came from
529
00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.599
a really, really poor home, and I started working when
530
00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:29.599
I was nine years old. My first job was washing
531
00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:32.599
cars and got grass at nineteen years old, then working
532
00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:35.279
on construction crews cleaning up around homes that were being
533
00:23:35.319 --> 00:23:37.799
built when I was ten and eleven years old, and
534
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:40.839
then actually building houses when I was twelve and thirteen.
535
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:44.920
And I played sports also during all this. All throughout high.
536
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:49.039
School, played football, wrestled, and my junior and senior year
537
00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:50.279
of high school, I was homeless.
538
00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:52.359
When I was twelve years old.
539
00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:55.279
My mom had a boyfriend that on the property we
540
00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:57.480
lived in and he beat her up, and I was
541
00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:00.480
too young to do anything about it. When I was fifteen,
542
00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:02.279
he tried to do it again and I took a
543
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:05.759
baseball back to him, and I wasn't too young to
544
00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:08.640
do anything about it then. And my family all love
545
00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:11.039
each other. My mom loved us as best she could.
546
00:24:11.079 --> 00:24:13.640
She raised her kids really, really well. She had five
547
00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:15.799
kids and quit school in the eighth grade. So we
548
00:24:15.960 --> 00:24:18.480
live in houses that didn't have running water, electricity, just
549
00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:21.720
because we couldn't afford it. And so when that riding
550
00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:23.279
on the wall kind of came and I knew it
551
00:24:23.319 --> 00:24:26.279
was untenable really for me to stay home any longer.
552
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:28.960
I started taking care of myself. And I still had
553
00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:31.240
a great relationship with my mom and my family. It
554
00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:33.640
was just kind of an understood thing, even though it
555
00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:36.680
wasn't stated that, hey man, I'm better off financially just
556
00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:38.200
working and taking care of myself.
557
00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:41.559
So the company I worked for also had some clothing stores.
558
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.039
And I slept behind the cash register from midnight to
559
00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:46.880
five am. Yeah, and that was my job. I was
560
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:48.960
security and they gave me a company vehicle.
561
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:50.880
I would leave there.
562
00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:53.640
I'd lock it up and I'd drive down the hill
563
00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:56.160
to the high school that I played football at, and
564
00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:58.839
I could take a shower in the athletics department because
565
00:24:58.839 --> 00:25:01.759
I did athletics, And then after school, I'd go to
566
00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:04.440
football practice. After football practice, I'd go home with a
567
00:25:04.440 --> 00:25:08.000
buddy I played football with. I'd eat dinner with his family, shower,
568
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.559
do whatever homework I had, and then be back up
569
00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:13.039
at the store at midnight to sleep there from midnight
570
00:25:13.079 --> 00:25:14.119
to five am.
571
00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:15.119
Those were my hours.
572
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:15.880
That's great.
573
00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:18.599
So that was my schedule. Yeah, all throughout high school,
574
00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:21.200
we want to state championship. And when undefeated at football
575
00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:23.359
at Alabama that year, so it was like a rudy
576
00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:25.960
story man, and I want to stay championship in amateur
577
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.640
wrestling as well. But I was so busy living life
578
00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:33.240
and surviving and plus wrestling in the early ninety sucked,
579
00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:38.960
so I wasn't really watching it as much. And then
580
00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:43.039
about nineteen ninety five is when I graduated high school.
581
00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:45.039
About ninety six, I started college.
582
00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:47.599
I was already engaged by then to who would be
583
00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:52.160
my future wife, and so we settled in a little
584
00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:54.039
bit more and we were about to start college together,
585
00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.839
and I had more stability in my life and all
586
00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:59.759
of a sudden, WCW had Monday Night Drove.
587
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:00.960
It had just started.
588
00:26:01.559 --> 00:26:04.200
They had all the guys I grew up with under
589
00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:07.160
that umbrella, right they had Now the nWo is just hit.
590
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.839
My mind's blown because I'm watching hul Cogan turnhel and
591
00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:11.920
now he's a bad guy.
592
00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:13.200
You know what's this all about?
593
00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:15.160
And they got Rick Flair, they got Lex Luger, they
594
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:17.839
got Steamed, they got Roddy Poker, they got the Macho Man,
595
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:20.319
and then on the undercard, they got.
596
00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:22.319
Stuff I've never seen in wrestling before.
597
00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:26.119
When you see like Billy Kidman and Ray Minsterio Junior
598
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:29.559
Wrestling and even guys like just go Inferno. We're entertaining
599
00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:32.559
his activity, man, And to watch that stuff play out,
600
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:34.759
you know, and I'm going, this was a good product
601
00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:37.160
from top to bottom. And then right in the middle
602
00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:41.119
that sen my main event slide. You had guys like
603
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:45.359
Eddie Guerrero, Chris bin Wan, Chris Jericho, Dee Malinko or
604
00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:47.559
Wrestling weekend and week out, and You're going, man, this
605
00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:50.680
is just a great product top to bottom. And I
606
00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:53.839
watched for maybe three weeks or four weeks, and then
607
00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:56.079
I saw the promos that were running for the power
608
00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:59.279
Plant and they open tryouts, and my mentality at the
609
00:26:59.319 --> 00:27:02.640
time literally was Atlanta is a drive away from me.
610
00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:06.039
I'll never make it professional wrestling. I don't know anything
611
00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:08.240
about professional wrestling. I didn't even know at the time
612
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:12.000
this will work, you know, I didn't I've never been
613
00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:13.960
to a show, backstage, nothing.
614
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:16.680
I just thought, man, what a great story to have
615
00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:18.160
for the rest of my life if I go on
616
00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:21.400
a tryout and I meet Steam or I shake his hand,
617
00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:24.519
or meet Rick Flair, and I didn't know what to expect.
618
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:26.960
So I got this open tryout at the power Plan.
619
00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:29.640
Those were three day long tryouts, and anything you guys
620
00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:33.079
ever heard about about how bad and brutal it was
621
00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:40.039
is absolutely not over exaggerated or overstated. And Sarge, I
622
00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:42.680
don't know if you guys have ever met Sarge. You know,
623
00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:47.119
with Sergeant Buddy Lee Parker, Dwayne Bruce. Yeah, he was
624
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:51.000
a legitimate like coast Guard drill sergeant. And so he
625
00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:53.759
would come in this fire club that was like five six,
626
00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:56.319
two hundred and thirty pounds and built like a Rubets cube,
627
00:27:56.440 --> 00:27:58.880
and he would just come in and go grab a bucket,
628
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:01.799
Grab a buck what's the And they had these five
629
00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:05.000
gallon paint buckets. You flipped them upside down and you
630
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.880
did free squats, and you started with reps of fifty
631
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.200
drop down push ups, roll over sit ups, run in place,
632
00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:14.240
reps of fifty again continuously until.
633
00:28:13.960 --> 00:28:17.160
You built up the five hundred squats. And I'm looking
634
00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:18.359
in the tryout class.
635
00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:21.039
Yeah, yeah, So there was like twenty four guys in
636
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.759
the tryout class, and I would say it was a
637
00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:27.400
mix of guys that were like college athletes that weren't
638
00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:29.799
quite good enough for the pros, like football players and
639
00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:32.519
those types of athletes they knew they were wanting to
640
00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:34.880
go pro, but they wanted to continue to be an athlete,
641
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:38.440
or the bodybuilders that wanted something to do in the
642
00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:40.200
off season to make money, and they thought they had
643
00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:43.000
to look. Or you'd have raw boned guys that were
644
00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:46.319
just naturally six foot eight, four hundred pounds and had
645
00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:46.920
tattoos and.
646
00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:48.440
Mohawks and thought they had to look.
647
00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:52.200
In their mind, all those guys thought if I checked
648
00:28:52.200 --> 00:28:54.640
the boxes, they're gonna see me and just sign me
649
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:58.640
to a contract, you know. And I'm looking around and
650
00:28:58.680 --> 00:29:03.200
I'm watching drills, you know, Serge get in their face
651
00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:05.319
and when they're falling out and cramping up because they
652
00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:08.160
can't do anymore squats, you know, or the juice gets
653
00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:11.880
to them and they're locked up, they're blood or whatever.
654
00:29:12.200 --> 00:29:12.400
You know.
655
00:29:12.759 --> 00:29:14.920
He would get down in their face. But look, you
656
00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:16.680
called us. We didn't call you if you can't do
657
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:19.240
it out here, and he's just running them off one
658
00:29:19.240 --> 00:29:22.960
after the other. It took about the first half of
659
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:24.880
the first day for me to realize this was a
660
00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:28.880
war of attrition, and I looked around, went, oh, that's
661
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:31.759
the game. Well, I've been through some stuff in my
662
00:29:31.799 --> 00:29:34.160
life by then. You may ask me to leave, but
663
00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:38.119
I'm not gonna quit, you know, I'm not that guy. Yeah,
664
00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:39.359
So that was my mentality.
665
00:29:39.400 --> 00:29:41.759
And once I realized that was the thing, I was
666
00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:44.039
like a Rick flair Mark at that point because every
667
00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:46.400
squat I wasn't just doing them. I would do them
668
00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:52.119
and go oooh, I wanted to be there.
669
00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:54.160
And at the end of three day trap well, at
670
00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:56.319
the end of the first day there were sixteen guys left,
671
00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:00.119
second day, eight guys showed up. End of the second
672
00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:03.839
there was maybe six five six guys left, and then
673
00:30:03.880 --> 00:30:06.599
the third day and all of it was just ten
674
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:10.039
hours of exactly what I just described and the third
675
00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:12.880
day there was two guys left. Me and one other
676
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:15.359
guy were the only two that showed up, and we
677
00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:17.960
did the same thing I described for the first half
678
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:20.680
of the morning. Then we finally rolled into the ring
679
00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:24.359
for the first time. They didn't they still k faved everything.
680
00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:27.200
They didn't tell us nothing about the wrestling business. They
681
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.759
taught us very quickly how to run the ropes, taught
682
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:31.680
us how to take a back bump, how to take
683
00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:33.720
a front bump, and see if we were athletic enough
684
00:30:33.720 --> 00:30:36.240
to pull that off. And then they pulled us into
685
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:39.680
Jody Hamilton's office and then you sat down with the
686
00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.960
Winston Churchill Professional Wrestling.
687
00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:43.880
And you know he would do the dealry and lean
688
00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:48.920
back and he'd take us off, hold his hands over
689
00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:54.319
his start and look, kid, we're not promising you'll ever
690
00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:57.519
have a job in a wrestling business. I'm not telling
691
00:30:57.559 --> 00:31:01.079
you you're gonna be on TV telling you that you're
692
00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:04.240
going to be a big superstar. You are not a
693
00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:08.599
wc W wrestler. But if you want to pay us
694
00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:11.039
three grand, you've shown us enough to prove to us
695
00:31:11.079 --> 00:31:11.680
that you have.
696
00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:12.279
To pay.
697
00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:15.400
Unreal count shit.
698
00:31:16.759 --> 00:31:19.720
Well, my mentality at the time was this, and honestly
699
00:31:19.799 --> 00:31:21.519
was this. I go, you know what, you pay for
700
00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:24.000
any training you get in this world. I don't care
701
00:31:24.039 --> 00:31:25.960
if you want to be a doctor or if you
702
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:27.880
want to be a welder, You're going to pay for
703
00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:30.559
some kind of training or schooling. And if I really
704
00:31:30.599 --> 00:31:33.079
thought that I could have any kind of career of
705
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:36.119
professional wrestling, and for whatever reason, it felt natural to me.
706
00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.519
It felt like it came natural to me, just did
707
00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:40.000
from the first time I stepped in the ring.
708
00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:42.400
It felt right. So I said, you know what, this
709
00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:44.160
is my best bet for training.
710
00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:46.720
I'm not there's no place I can go that's bigger
711
00:31:46.759 --> 00:31:48.799
than WCW was at the time.
712
00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:51.359
And get better training. There just wasn't.
713
00:31:51.519 --> 00:31:53.359
And so I go, you know what, I'm gonna get
714
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:55.279
this thing a shot, and I'm a bet on myself.
715
00:31:55.319 --> 00:31:59.079
I had fifteen hundred dollars in my savings account.
716
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.559
I gave that to w CW and Ted Turner also
717
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:04.599
owned see an In Center, so I worked the rest
718
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:06.200
of it off moving furniture.
719
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:06.720
At the c an N Center.
720
00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:10.599
And I was from Alabama to Atlanta, two hours there,
721
00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:13.119
two hours back, ten hours a day, five days a
722
00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:17.599
week for about ten months before I had my first match.
723
00:32:18.599 --> 00:32:21.480
So my two questions are one, who was the other guy?
724
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:24.279
Did he ever make it? And what was like the
725
00:32:24.319 --> 00:32:25.920
actual training like when they let you in?
726
00:32:27.119 --> 00:32:28.319
Yeah, never saw him again.
727
00:32:28.359 --> 00:32:31.559
So what happens is they brought us into the office individually,
728
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:33.759
So I don't know what they said to him, if
729
00:32:33.799 --> 00:32:35.480
it was the same spill they gave to me, which
730
00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:37.920
it probably was, but I never saw him again after
731
00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:38.599
that last day.
732
00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:40.079
That's incredible, yow.
733
00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:44.880
And so the guys that came after me that very
734
00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:47.599
very quickly after that, I don't know how this fell
735
00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:50.880
the way that it fell, But like the very next month,
736
00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:54.000
they had another training, you know, exactly would have these
737
00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:57.680
things monthly. These tryouts were monthly, and then the next
738
00:32:57.720 --> 00:33:02.880
month that tryout through there was Mike Sanders trial Ale Sanders,
739
00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:05.440
you know, and the power plant with us, and then
740
00:33:05.480 --> 00:33:08.440
not long after that was Alan Funk, and then right
741
00:33:08.519 --> 00:33:12.119
whatever Alan Funk was Elix Skipper, and then Mark Jennerak,
742
00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:14.960
and then Chuck Palumbo and then Sean o'harron not too
743
00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:16.920
long after that. We just all kind of came through
744
00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:20.480
together about the same time. And I was the first
745
00:33:20.519 --> 00:33:23.119
of that crew, so to speak, and I was probably
746
00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:26.400
the first of that crew that kind of got a
747
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:27.519
little bit of a break.
748
00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:30.119
So, yeah, we want to.
749
00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:32.599
Ask you about your obviously your your wrestling career, but
750
00:33:32.599 --> 00:33:34.279
we have some questions from the fans. I think the
751
00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:37.000
questions might come up organically, right Mark.
752
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:39.240
Yeah, yeah, sure, I mean there's a lot. I mean
753
00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:42.559
we've actually, uh you know, answered a lot of them already.
754
00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:47.920
But you got all right, guys, met So you know,
755
00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:48.640
we asked.
756
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.519
Our fans in our little Facebook group to ask you
757
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:53.599
some questions. So these aren't going to be sort of
758
00:33:53.640 --> 00:33:55.519
in order or anything. They're just gonna be kind of
759
00:33:55.559 --> 00:33:57.920
all over the place. But uh so here we go.
760
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:01.480
So Chesley Gobar says, did you enjoy the corporal Cajun
761
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:04.359
persona or not? How much input did you have in
762
00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:06.279
that gimmick? He says, I loved it?
763
00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:08.639
Ha ha.
764
00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:12.400
Hey, here's the thing about the corporal caguing gimmick. I'm
765
00:34:12.400 --> 00:34:14.679
extremely proud of it. It's probably the better way to
766
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:16.880
explain that. And what I mean by that is this.
767
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:19.039
The way all that stuff came about with the n
768
00:34:19.119 --> 00:34:24.320
I A was Vince Russo came in and he just started, man,
769
00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:27.159
you know, changing everything right away. He was really high
770
00:34:27.159 --> 00:34:29.440
on the young guys and wanted to make new stars.
771
00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:31.079
And I think part of that was he had to
772
00:34:31.079 --> 00:34:34.199
feel like he, you know, was proving himself by making
773
00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:37.480
new stars. And he was really big on doing that.
774
00:34:37.719 --> 00:34:40.440
And he brought me and a lot of people don't
775
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:42.880
don't remember that this was a part of it, but
776
00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:48.559
it was me, Hugh Morris, Chiabo Guerrero, oh man, what
777
00:34:48.599 --> 00:34:54.800
was Big Van Hamer, Van Hammer and Booker T Booker T.
778
00:34:54.920 --> 00:34:56.880
Because Booker T was g I Bro, I don't know
779
00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:59.320
if you got remember that, this.
780
00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:01.639
Gimmick, right. So he brought all of a sudden there
781
00:35:01.639 --> 00:35:06.199
and he said, look, bro, bro, here's the thing. Yeah,
782
00:35:06.280 --> 00:35:10.280
I don't have room for all you guys on.
783
00:35:09.159 --> 00:35:12.000
On the show. But he goes, I got two choices.
784
00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:14.679
I can either send you home are we need comic
785
00:35:14.719 --> 00:35:17.079
relief in the show, and we want you guys to
786
00:35:17.159 --> 00:35:21.199
basically be on the movie stripes. That's the way he
787
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:23.960
sold it. And they kind of gave us the names
788
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:26.840
Corporal Cage and and and I think van Hammer was
789
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:30.440
stashed at first, and uh and then you know, general
790
00:35:30.519 --> 00:35:32.840
Hugh erection and.
791
00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:36.880
Bill hated that he hated that Gipp guy. He hated
792
00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:39.559
he hated the name but what me.
793
00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:42.519
And Hugh and He'll always build a mott will always
794
00:35:42.519 --> 00:35:44.800
forever be Hugh to me for him because that's just
795
00:35:44.840 --> 00:35:47.800
how I knew him. And uh, but me, Hugh and
796
00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:51.920
Chabo were pretty close at the time, and we were
797
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:53.760
pretty proud of the fact that I think the fact
798
00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:55.639
that that got over when it was booked just to
799
00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:58.599
be comic relief to the extent that it did. I mean,
800
00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:02.440
I realized that this is a a flashpan point of
801
00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:04.639
WCW there where it went a lot of good to
802
00:36:04.679 --> 00:36:07.079
probably look at, but it got over to a certain extent.
803
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:09.039
And for the extent that it got over, we took
804
00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:12.519
pride in the fact that it was strictly forced based
805
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:14.400
on our workability. And once we got in the ring,
806
00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:16.719
you know, especially me and Chabo as a tag team,
807
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:18.440
once you put us in the ring, man, we felt
808
00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:20.519
like we could go with anybody and we could play
809
00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:22.599
whatever part you needed us to play. So when they
810
00:36:22.599 --> 00:36:24.119
came to me and they said you're going to be
811
00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:27.840
corporal Cajun and you guys have to wear camouflage for instance,
812
00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:30.559
because the I think they asked how much input did
813
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:32.360
we have in it? Well, I had no input on
814
00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:36.079
the name but when they came to me with the camouflage,
815
00:36:36.119 --> 00:36:37.519
you go, well, now wait a second, as long as
816
00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:40.360
I'm wearing this urban camouflage that they just ran and
817
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:43.119
got from the surplus store, they said some runner for it.
818
00:36:43.159 --> 00:36:45.760
I said, doesn't matter how I wear it, as long
819
00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:47.199
as I'm wearing it. No, no, no, no, as long as
820
00:36:47.239 --> 00:36:50.199
you guys kind of like, okay, well what I felt
821
00:36:50.440 --> 00:36:53.840
fit my personalaws. I take one color of the urban
822
00:36:53.880 --> 00:36:56.280
camouflage and another pair of pants, took it to the
823
00:36:56.280 --> 00:36:59.000
wardrobe and asked Sandra to split them up the middle,
824
00:36:59.239 --> 00:37:01.519
take two alternate colors, and kind of saw them together
825
00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:02.719
so that would look different.
826
00:37:03.239 --> 00:37:03.559
Uh.
827
00:37:03.679 --> 00:37:06.079
Then I took my wrestling boots and I would fold the.
828
00:37:06.039 --> 00:37:07.800
Tops down to make them look a little bit more
829
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:10.119
like World War two jump boots instead of just wrestling.
830
00:37:10.840 --> 00:37:12.559
I took a bucket hat, cut a hole in the
831
00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:14.679
top of it, pulled the hair through, and I still
832
00:37:14.679 --> 00:37:17.599
wore my money grub beats, you know, just tried to
833
00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:19.599
make it our own. And Chavo wore the you know,
834
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:22.280
the dow rag and the bandana and that sort of thing,
835
00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:24.079
and uh and and then we.
836
00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:26.920
Pretty quickly threw Van Hammer out of the out of
837
00:37:26.960 --> 00:37:31.119
the group, is there.
838
00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:35.079
Yeah, So actually taking a step back so that the
839
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:38.880
Last LaRue character, Rob Buck says, was there any inspiration
840
00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:42.239
whether in name or hairstyle taken from the X Men's gambit,
841
00:37:43.159 --> 00:37:45.280
which is his real name is Remy Lebue.
842
00:37:48.239 --> 00:37:50.400
Honest with you, here's the way all that stuff came about.
843
00:37:50.679 --> 00:37:55.079
And this is one hot and and so I promised
844
00:37:55.079 --> 00:37:58.079
with you guys are transparent, transparent.
845
00:37:58.440 --> 00:38:00.760
So my real name is Johnny Mark LaRue.
846
00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:03.920
Anybody can Wikipedia that and see that my real name
847
00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:07.519
since I was eighteen years old is Jonathan Mark Last LaRue.
848
00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:09.719
And the reason why it is the best advice I
849
00:38:09.719 --> 00:38:11.960
got in the wrestling business that really helped me out
850
00:38:12.039 --> 00:38:15.719
so much was again Jody Hamilton and all this wisdom.
851
00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:19.199
He called me Last from day one because he remembered
852
00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:21.519
the old cowboy Last LaRue from way back in the
853
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:25.039
Western time, right, that guy just spelled his last name differently.
854
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:27.400
And so as soon as he here last, Hey, he
855
00:38:27.400 --> 00:38:29.519
goes Hey, Last LaRue. And so he called me in
856
00:38:29.559 --> 00:38:31.280
there and he just called me in his office one day
857
00:38:31.280 --> 00:38:33.119
and he goes and this is before ever signed with
858
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:37.760
WCW or anything. I just really started training and he goes, hey, kid,
859
00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:40.679
so you really think you're gonna use this like last
860
00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:44.039
LaRue name? And I go, well, I don't have anything better.
861
00:38:44.079 --> 00:38:46.440
I think, yeah, probably, So when he goes, he goes,
862
00:38:46.559 --> 00:38:48.760
I would I think it's a good college, got built
863
00:38:48.760 --> 00:38:51.440
in name recognition already. He goes, it's great. He goes,
864
00:38:51.719 --> 00:38:54.079
give you a little bit of advice. Give me all
865
00:38:54.079 --> 00:38:57.480
the advice that you can, Jody, please, he goes. If
866
00:38:57.519 --> 00:39:01.079
I were you, I wouldn't worry about trademarks. I wouldn't
867
00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:03.360
worry about copyrights. I wouldn't think about any of that
868
00:39:03.400 --> 00:39:05.719
stuff because all that stuff expires, or you have to
869
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:07.199
continue to renew it, or you.
870
00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:08.119
Got to pay more money.
871
00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:09.840
You have to really stay on top of He goes,
872
00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:12.880
Since your real last name is LaRue, I would go
873
00:39:12.920 --> 00:39:17.079
to your local probate office back home, and I would
874
00:39:17.079 --> 00:39:20.239
petition the court to just legally add that to your name.
875
00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:26.559
Don't change your name what anyway, the example he gave me,
876
00:39:26.559 --> 00:39:28.440
he goes, he goes, like a woman.
877
00:39:28.320 --> 00:39:31.000
That goes against married and changes her last name, just
878
00:39:31.079 --> 00:39:32.639
go and fill out that same form.
879
00:39:33.079 --> 00:39:35.159
And I went and talked to my lawyer. I go,
880
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:36.840
can I do? He goes, Yeah, we do, that like
881
00:39:36.920 --> 00:39:38.960
for twenty five bucks, I added last.
882
00:39:38.920 --> 00:39:41.119
Money before everyone, Oh my god.
883
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:42.559
Yeah.
884
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:45.159
And here's the best part of that story. For instance,
885
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:48.400
w CW was never an issue. W CW never thought
886
00:39:48.400 --> 00:39:50.639
about it. And by the way, as a side note,
887
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:53.320
as a parenthetical, I knew I couldn't be Mark LaRue
888
00:39:53.679 --> 00:39:55.639
because the first time I ever went to a wrestling show,
889
00:39:55.639 --> 00:39:58.000
I met Terry Taylor, and you guys know Terry, I'm sure.
890
00:39:58.239 --> 00:39:59.920
I walked up to him and I said, hey, mister Ta,
891
00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:01.920
I just want to introduce myself. My name's Mark, and
892
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:07.800
he goes, I'm sure you are, kid, and guy, I
893
00:40:07.920 --> 00:40:10.960
work in the wrestling business. So I went and changed that.
894
00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:14.880
W CW was never an issue WWE. When I signed
895
00:40:14.880 --> 00:40:17.440
with them, they had in their contract that they owned
896
00:40:17.480 --> 00:40:19.159
Last LaRue, the rights to it.
897
00:40:19.159 --> 00:40:21.639
The name, the whole deal. And so I called them up.
898
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:24.239
And I said, the only issue I've got with the contracts,
899
00:40:24.280 --> 00:40:26.840
not the money, nothing else is I don't know how
900
00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:29.239
you own the name Last LaRue when that's my name,
901
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:31.880
And they go, well, we bought WCW, and we we
902
00:40:32.039 --> 00:40:33.920
assumed that they came up with the character and that
903
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:36.599
intellectual property and we owned that and go No, they
904
00:40:36.599 --> 00:40:38.400
didn't come up with that's my real name. They go, well,
905
00:40:38.440 --> 00:40:40.199
just send us copy of your driver's license. So I
906
00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:42.320
sent a copy of my driver's license. They changed the
907
00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:44.800
contract and it was never an issue. Here's my idea,
908
00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:47.719
my legal name for six or eight years or so.
909
00:40:48.280 --> 00:40:51.280
Wow, I never even thought of something like that. Maybe
910
00:40:51.320 --> 00:40:54.960
you can help me with my geography, raige occasion. You're
911
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:58.320
from Alabama, so is that right? Can you be a casion?
912
00:40:58.599 --> 00:41:01.159
Is it that region or is the only New Orleans thing?
913
00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:01.360
Like?
914
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:02.039
Help me out with this.
915
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:05.800
So here's the deal on that. So legit true story.
916
00:41:05.880 --> 00:41:08.559
My dad was from Lofila, Louisiana, but I never knew them.
917
00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:10.519
I never knew my dad. I never knew that family.
918
00:41:10.639 --> 00:41:13.320
My mom raised us in Alabama. I just got this
919
00:41:13.679 --> 00:41:15.880
legit shoot cage in last name LaRue.
920
00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:16.559
Right.
921
00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:17.039
So when I.
922
00:41:16.960 --> 00:41:19.599
Started at WCW and I come over there and I'm
923
00:41:19.599 --> 00:41:21.320
trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself.
924
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:24.320
Like they asked about the hair when I showed up. Man,
925
00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:26.519
my hair was short. I always kept it short for
926
00:41:26.639 --> 00:41:29.639
ball in high school and the coaches made us do that.
927
00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:32.000
They said, kid, you need to grow out your hair,
928
00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:34.239
and you need some facial hair because you look too
929
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:37.400
much like high school you look actually they said, look
930
00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:38.400
the kid Rudy.
931
00:41:38.159 --> 00:41:41.079
From the movie Rooty. So back when I was young,
932
00:41:41.119 --> 00:41:43.000
I guess I did. And so when I grew my
933
00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:44.840
hair out, all it would do is just curl up.
934
00:41:45.159 --> 00:41:47.559
That's all it would do, is just naturally curly and froy,
935
00:41:47.679 --> 00:41:49.920
and so I just kind of leaned into that. Let
936
00:41:49.960 --> 00:41:52.559
it be crazy. Then when I didn't want to go
937
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:55.159
to everybody had to go to in the nineties, so
938
00:41:55.559 --> 00:41:58.199
I started going out these big port chop sideburns because
939
00:41:58.199 --> 00:42:00.519
I'm a huge Elvis mark. And now I looked in
940
00:42:00.559 --> 00:42:02.719
the mirror one day and the artist and he said, hey,
941
00:42:03.039 --> 00:42:05.719
I could shave those into my initials and make that different.
942
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:08.480
And so I put the double l's on that. And
943
00:42:08.519 --> 00:42:11.039
then they stuck a microphone in front of my face
944
00:42:11.079 --> 00:42:13.280
at eighteen years old and wanted me to come my
945
00:42:13.320 --> 00:42:17.239
first promo. And when I graduated high school, I talked
946
00:42:17.239 --> 00:42:19.960
probably about like from Alamma. So while I was from Alabama,
947
00:42:20.039 --> 00:42:22.239
they putting my phone on I my name blast a
948
00:42:22.280 --> 00:42:24.960
real mama. They go, oh, you can't talk like that
949
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:27.840
on television because Southern's considered ignorant. You got to drop
950
00:42:27.840 --> 00:42:30.719
the Southern accent. I go, I can't drop this. I'm
951
00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:33.639
gonna drop my Southern accent. And I tried, and I tried,
952
00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:37.199
man for about six eight weeks. Man, I'm working every
953
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:40.199
day on annunciation and everything else, and I'm going, I
954
00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:43.239
this guy can't drop it. And then one day it
955
00:42:43.320 --> 00:42:46.000
hit me. I go, now, wait a second. And by
956
00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:49.159
this point I met Macho, I met Dusty Rhodes, and
957
00:42:49.239 --> 00:42:51.280
those guys they kind of talked like that, but they
958
00:42:51.320 --> 00:42:54.039
had really like Dusty Dusty kind of thought like this.
959
00:42:54.159 --> 00:42:54.360
You know.
960
00:42:54.679 --> 00:42:57.079
But when he's kind of promo because.
961
00:42:56.880 --> 00:42:58.840
He's got anyway, he's.
962
00:42:58.679 --> 00:43:01.480
Gonna really put pronounce it, lean into it. And then
963
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:03.760
you know, Macho got that gimmick voice and that sort
964
00:43:03.840 --> 00:43:06.119
of thing. Man, And I go, you know what, I
965
00:43:06.159 --> 00:43:09.000
can't hide my Southern accent, but I can go. But
966
00:43:09.039 --> 00:43:11.199
I'm with a Cajun accent because I grew up watching
967
00:43:11.239 --> 00:43:14.280
this thing in Alabama and that came on Alabama Public
968
00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:17.239
Television and it was this guy justin Wilson, and he
969
00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:19.280
was a cage on shelf man and he come out
970
00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:21.199
and he go, We're about to cook a little bit
971
00:43:21.239 --> 00:43:23.719
of cage on food it's gonna be the best thing.
972
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:27.679
I'll put you about, my Gary, A little.
973
00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:30.119
Wine for the ticket, a little wine for me, and
974
00:43:30.239 --> 00:43:32.840
so I the whole Cajun culture thing.
975
00:43:32.800 --> 00:43:36.280
Man, wow, and the first choice. And then they said
976
00:43:36.280 --> 00:43:39.360
to me, they go, okay, well where's home? And again
977
00:43:39.599 --> 00:43:41.920
the branding and the artist in me and everything else
978
00:43:42.039 --> 00:43:45.519
and the dad's roots, and I go Cajun country, Lofay
979
00:43:45.559 --> 00:43:49.400
at Louisiana. Double L's a little subliminal thing there, so
980
00:43:49.599 --> 00:43:50.440
I can play off that.
981
00:43:50.880 --> 00:43:52.400
So of course, my love.
982
00:43:52.559 --> 00:43:55.159
The first place w cw ever sends me to an
983
00:43:55.159 --> 00:43:59.039
augrass signing is lofaiat Louisiana. So now I'm thinking, all right,
984
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:02.639
I'm either gonna blow this, this this gimmick right now,
985
00:44:03.440 --> 00:44:06.000
or this is the best test for it. And the
986
00:44:06.079 --> 00:44:08.559
people would coming in wanting an autographs, and I go, hey,
987
00:44:08.800 --> 00:44:10.679
how y'all doing? Where y'all at? Who can I make
988
00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:13.400
this out to? And I and these people are trying
989
00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:15.039
to convince me they know my family. They go, I
990
00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:18.159
knew your daddy or daddy. I want to have a
991
00:44:18.239 --> 00:44:23.000
name and a number or something. I've never met it.
992
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:25.039
And then it instantly goes.
993
00:44:24.920 --> 00:44:27.079
In my mind. I go, look this may be cheesy,
994
00:44:27.159 --> 00:44:29.079
it may be over the top, but if the people
995
00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:31.280
here believe it and treat me like a hometown hero,
996
00:44:31.639 --> 00:44:36.119
I won't have any trouble in Brooklyn, or say, I
997
00:44:36.199 --> 00:44:38.440
see and then I'll find out really quick too. If
998
00:44:38.480 --> 00:44:41.719
you spend any time in Louisiana, they all have different
999
00:44:41.760 --> 00:44:45.119
accents anyway, every parish you go to, every one of
1000
00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:46.599
those cages sound different.
1001
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:49.599
And then you go downtown New Orleans and those guys
1002
00:44:49.639 --> 00:44:50.639
sound like they're from Brooklyn.
1003
00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:57.760
No figure, that's that's where Red's is at, right, Broski legit? Yeah,
1004
00:44:57.840 --> 00:44:59.559
Red's gym in best gym in the country, man, where
1005
00:44:59.559 --> 00:45:01.199
the boys are hitting that?
1006
00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:01.559
Yeah?
1007
00:45:02.760 --> 00:45:06.119
Well, and so with the with the whole gimmick itself. Man,
1008
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:08.639
I kind of came up with all that, and uh,
1009
00:45:08.719 --> 00:45:09.920
I just started adding to it.
1010
00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:13.000
You know. I went up to Terry Taylor at.
1011
00:45:12.559 --> 00:45:17.079
A WCW Worldwide TV taping in Orlando two matches into
1012
00:45:17.119 --> 00:45:19.559
my career and said, Hey, Terry, you monif I wrestler
1013
00:45:19.559 --> 00:45:20.679
as a last LaRue.
1014
00:45:20.760 --> 00:45:23.119
He goes, I don't care what your wrestle erst and.
1015
00:45:23.239 --> 00:45:24.000
He did in that time.
1016
00:45:24.639 --> 00:45:26.079
I go okay, So I went and knocked on the
1017
00:45:26.119 --> 00:45:28.800
production truck, you know, twenty years old. And they answered
1018
00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:30.760
the door and I go, hey, Terry Taylor said, I
1019
00:45:30.760 --> 00:45:32.559
could wrestle as last LaRue, So if you don't mind
1020
00:45:32.760 --> 00:45:35.159
changing the cry on at the bottom there, so instead
1021
00:45:35.159 --> 00:45:37.559
of it saying Mark Lewis says last lear they go, sure,
1022
00:45:37.599 --> 00:45:40.960
no problem, and they did that, and then now the
1023
00:45:41.159 --> 00:45:44.239
announcers are kind of forced by that point to start
1024
00:45:44.320 --> 00:45:46.719
calling you that. And then when you come out and
1025
00:45:46.840 --> 00:45:48.519
you just went and had your gear made and you
1026
00:45:48.639 --> 00:45:50.800
put raging on one side and caging on the other,
1027
00:45:51.360 --> 00:45:53.559
they get the hint they need something to talk about
1028
00:45:53.599 --> 00:45:55.159
the in your match, and I'll call you the rage
1029
00:45:55.199 --> 00:45:57.599
and caging and I added the Martigras beads.
1030
00:45:57.840 --> 00:46:02.039
Then I added the side burns and it just kind
1031
00:46:02.079 --> 00:46:02.880
of took off from there.
1032
00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:05.079
I love it.
1033
00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:09.360
So this one's kind of topical with the with the
1034
00:46:09.480 --> 00:46:13.320
return of TNA this weekend. Ted Conley Baker says, how
1035
00:46:13.360 --> 00:46:15.239
did you get involved with TNA? I remember seeing on
1036
00:46:15.320 --> 00:46:18.599
a few shows on the TNA explosion back.
1037
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:22.199
In the ya as you're in the inaugural episode, right, Yeah, yeah,
1038
00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:22.760
sure was.
1039
00:46:22.880 --> 00:46:26.719
And again it was the only time in my wrestling
1040
00:46:26.800 --> 00:46:30.039
career that I really cracked was stuck up in Cincinnati,
1041
00:46:30.679 --> 00:46:32.519
and you know, I'm sure we'll get into more of
1042
00:46:32.599 --> 00:46:35.360
that at some point. But TNA came round on the
1043
00:46:35.440 --> 00:46:37.599
heels of that, and I was out of shape.
1044
00:46:37.719 --> 00:46:41.039
Man, looking back, I really squandered probably a good opportunity there,
1045
00:46:41.679 --> 00:46:45.239
and and I still had just enough of w CW
1046
00:46:45.480 --> 00:46:47.360
gravatas that I was trying to carry around on my
1047
00:46:47.480 --> 00:46:49.199
back that I thought that I just kind of deserved
1048
00:46:49.239 --> 00:46:49.519
the spot.
1049
00:46:49.599 --> 00:46:50.000
Anyway.
1050
00:46:50.360 --> 00:46:53.079
Probably I didn't act like that because I've always tried
1051
00:46:53.119 --> 00:46:54.679
to not be arrogant or anything like.
1052
00:46:54.679 --> 00:46:56.519
That in my wrestling career. I tried to be humble.
1053
00:46:56.880 --> 00:46:58.239
But I think in the back of my mind I
1054
00:46:58.280 --> 00:47:01.039
probably squandered a lot because I expect more instead of
1055
00:47:01.119 --> 00:47:03.719
working for more and with TNA. But I was on
1056
00:47:03.800 --> 00:47:06.559
that very first episode. It was because Ed Forera came
1057
00:47:06.639 --> 00:47:09.800
in early to help out, you know, doing production and
1058
00:47:09.880 --> 00:47:11.559
stuff with him. And Ed gave me a call and
1059
00:47:11.599 --> 00:47:13.840
they said, hey, you're a Bama guy and this for
1060
00:47:14.320 --> 00:47:14.880
who's going to.
1061
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:16.920
Be in Huntsible. We want to fly you in or anything.
1062
00:47:17.159 --> 00:47:19.360
Are you interested in doing it? I said, yeah, absolutely,
1063
00:47:19.400 --> 00:47:19.719
I'll do it.
1064
00:47:19.880 --> 00:47:20.360
Love to do it.
1065
00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:21.280
Let's be a part of it.
1066
00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:23.280
So I had that short little stint on that show,
1067
00:47:23.519 --> 00:47:25.840
did a couple other matches with Saboo, and then I
1068
00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:27.320
kind of got the hint and I go, you know what,
1069
00:47:27.440 --> 00:47:29.159
I need to work for this a little bit. And
1070
00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:32.639
there was a time there pretty early on, when they
1071
00:47:32.679 --> 00:47:34.960
were doing the fair Grounds in Nashville. I would drive
1072
00:47:35.119 --> 00:47:37.719
back and forth. It's four hours in Nashville, four hours back,
1073
00:47:38.280 --> 00:47:40.840
just to be backstage on Wednesday night, hoping that they'd
1074
00:47:40.880 --> 00:47:44.039
give me a little shot. But again that goes back
1075
00:47:44.559 --> 00:47:46.880
and at that point, Man, so much stuff had happened
1076
00:47:46.920 --> 00:47:48.639
to me in the wrestling business. You would think I'm
1077
00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:51.480
a forty year old veteran, but I was probably twenty
1078
00:47:51.519 --> 00:47:53.960
four to twenty five man, and I didn't have a clue.
1079
00:47:54.320 --> 00:47:55.920
It goes back to what I was saying before Matt.
1080
00:47:56.519 --> 00:47:59.159
I knew how to wrestle. I didn't know the wrestling business.
1081
00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:02.000
I knew how to have great matches, you know. And
1082
00:48:02.079 --> 00:48:03.840
I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. I'm
1083
00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:05.079
just saying I think I could go out there and
1084
00:48:05.159 --> 00:48:06.920
work with anybody, and they could put me out there
1085
00:48:06.960 --> 00:48:08.679
with Saboo and do the job to Saboo.
1086
00:48:09.039 --> 00:48:10.719
I didn't know how to protect my gimmick. I didn't
1087
00:48:10.760 --> 00:48:11.840
know how to get myself over.
1088
00:48:12.079 --> 00:48:13.800
I didn't know how to talk to the people in
1089
00:48:13.880 --> 00:48:18.159
the back politics so much is just put forward some
1090
00:48:18.280 --> 00:48:23.400
ideas and have some uh, you know, have enough belief
1091
00:48:23.480 --> 00:48:26.519
in yourself, enough confidence in yourself that you can you
1092
00:48:26.599 --> 00:48:29.480
can be a little aggressive and assertive about going, hey,
1093
00:48:29.639 --> 00:48:31.519
use me, you know, do something with me. I got
1094
00:48:31.599 --> 00:48:33.559
a lot to bring to the table, and instead I
1095
00:48:33.679 --> 00:48:35.719
just kind of hope that they would go, Hey, they
1096
00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:37.400
know I work hard and I'm a good hand.
1097
00:48:37.840 --> 00:48:39.440
Why wouldn't they hire me, you know?
1098
00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:42.159
And I think I squandered some chances because of that,
1099
00:48:42.519 --> 00:48:45.519
And then that feeds into the bitterness even more because
1100
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:47.360
then you wonderline the world wand to give me a shot?
1101
00:48:47.480 --> 00:48:48.920
What did I do to kiss anybody off?
1102
00:48:49.800 --> 00:48:51.559
But I think the most important thing is that now
1103
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:53.679
you know you're talking about you may have been better,
1104
00:48:53.719 --> 00:48:55.679
but you're not. Now you know you put the you
1105
00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:58.719
hold yourself accountable and responsible, and you're not one of
1106
00:48:58.800 --> 00:49:01.880
these old timers sitting here say this guy help me down,
1107
00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:03.280
or this person backstad me.
1108
00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:05.559
So I respect I respect that a lot.
1109
00:49:05.719 --> 00:49:07.159
You know, well, thank you, brother.
1110
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:09.719
I've thought a lot about this throughout the years, man,
1111
00:49:09.800 --> 00:49:13.360
And and to be honest with your perspective is a powerful.
1112
00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:15.119
Thing in life. Right, you're as good as you think
1113
00:49:15.199 --> 00:49:16.920
you are, good as you're not. And I don't mean
1114
00:49:17.159 --> 00:49:20.079
necessarily talent skill wise, just where you are right now
1115
00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:22.800
in this world. Right, and then whether whether or not
1116
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:25.280
things are going well for you has so much to
1117
00:49:25.360 --> 00:49:28.000
do with the perspective. And you let that stuff get
1118
00:49:28.079 --> 00:49:29.639
in your head and you think it to yourself the
1119
00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:33.280
over they're burying me and they're out to get me. Dude.
1120
00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:38.000
Look, I came into WCWWWE at a time when they
1121
00:49:38.199 --> 00:49:41.000
just bought the company, you know, and I got bitter
1122
00:49:41.440 --> 00:49:44.320
because they signed me to a three year deal and
1123
00:49:44.400 --> 00:49:46.320
I took one hundred thousand dollars pay cup when I
1124
00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:49.159
could have set on my WCW money, just to prove
1125
00:49:49.239 --> 00:49:50.519
that I want to be part of the team.
1126
00:49:50.960 --> 00:49:52.880
And I signed a three year guaranteed deal and they
1127
00:49:52.920 --> 00:49:54.519
treated me like I was a trainee when it was
1128
00:49:54.559 --> 00:49:57.000
a wrestling talent contract. And then they send me to
1129
00:49:57.079 --> 00:49:58.840
Cincinnati and tell me I'm gonna be there for four
1130
00:49:58.920 --> 00:50:02.280
weeks and that turns into in months and you start thinking, Okay,
1131
00:50:02.360 --> 00:50:04.119
why are they messing with me and why they're burying
1132
00:50:04.159 --> 00:50:06.159
me and all this stuff. And then you get older
1133
00:50:06.159 --> 00:50:08.760
and you look back, you're there. How many people were
1134
00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:10.920
on the roster? Look, get any guys that were on
1135
00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:13.239
the rosters that had been world champions and are not
1136
00:50:13.320 --> 00:50:14.239
getting TV time.
1137
00:50:14.440 --> 00:50:20.920
Nobody was out to get lash LaRue. It's about the time, man,
1138
00:50:21.280 --> 00:50:23.400
and so you could put all your heart and soul
1139
00:50:23.440 --> 00:50:26.239
into something in the perspective everybody else's Oh he was
1140
00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:29.360
in the business for a cup of coffee. You know,
1141
00:50:29.480 --> 00:50:32.880
it's tough, it hurts, but it's live, man, and then
1142
00:50:32.920 --> 00:50:34.400
you pick yourself up, you go next.
1143
00:50:35.159 --> 00:50:38.000
Yeah. Absolutely, I love that. I love that perspective. I
1144
00:50:38.079 --> 00:50:41.760
love that attitude for sure. Uh.
1145
00:50:41.800 --> 00:50:45.639
I guess we got time for a couple more. Brian Harrison,
1146
00:50:45.639 --> 00:50:46.920
I don't know what he's talking about here, but this
1147
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:49.199
is interesting. What was it like riding in the Marti
1148
00:50:49.239 --> 00:50:52.199
Gars parade? I still have beads from the parade he
1149
00:50:52.400 --> 00:50:52.719
rode in.
1150
00:50:54.079 --> 00:50:57.360
Yeah, yeah, okay, So here's the genius of WCW at
1151
00:50:57.400 --> 00:50:58.320
the time. No, I'm kidding.
1152
00:50:58.719 --> 00:51:00.159
This is part of part of of.
1153
00:51:00.840 --> 00:51:06.400
Me not really having enough foresight and enough awareness of
1154
00:51:06.480 --> 00:51:08.360
where I was in the wrestling business to probably make
1155
00:51:08.440 --> 00:51:10.360
more out of it than what I did. And now
1156
00:51:10.440 --> 00:51:13.239
looking back, man, I would never miss these opportunities. But
1157
00:51:13.400 --> 00:51:16.039
because I was the raging Cajun lash LaRue man, they
1158
00:51:16.119 --> 00:51:18.280
treated me. They embraced me like I was the hometown
1159
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:22.440
boy in Louisiana, man, And they were great to me.
1160
00:51:22.519 --> 00:51:25.400
And I still feel like a big part of my heart.
1161
00:51:25.480 --> 00:51:26.760
I'm not trying to be cheesy about it.
1162
00:51:26.840 --> 00:51:26.960
Man.
1163
00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:28.880
It feels like a wholetown to me when I get
1164
00:51:28.880 --> 00:51:31.320
to go to Louisiana, and I love that the people
1165
00:51:31.400 --> 00:51:33.840
were proud to think of me as one of those
1166
00:51:33.920 --> 00:51:36.559
guys man. And hey, Cajun is caguing. It's more of
1167
00:51:36.599 --> 00:51:39.199
a mindset than it is anything else. And so they
1168
00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:42.280
had me Grand Marshall and Marti Gras about three years
1169
00:51:42.320 --> 00:51:44.880
in a row. In one of those years they actually
1170
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:46.920
had the last year that they did that, they sent
1171
00:51:46.960 --> 00:51:49.719
a pretty good group of WCW guys there because it
1172
00:51:49.800 --> 00:51:52.599
was getting over so well. As part of Marti Gras
1173
00:51:52.679 --> 00:51:55.119
Crew of Caesar Parade they put us on. And that
1174
00:51:55.320 --> 00:51:58.880
one that our friend there is probably talking about is
1175
00:51:58.920 --> 00:52:00.559
one of the last ones where I was there.
1176
00:52:00.599 --> 00:52:04.280
I think Canyon was there, Disco Inferno was there, some
1177
00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:07.639
other guys maybe Ravens Stereo, and we were riding on
1178
00:52:07.679 --> 00:52:09.559
the float Man and w CW.
1179
00:52:09.760 --> 00:52:11.639
I actually still have one and I love it to
1180
00:52:11.719 --> 00:52:13.639
this day. They had Marty Grass beats made that had
1181
00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:16.679
the big gold belt on it as count of the battallion.
1182
00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:19.599
Yeah, and then they had these do balloons they had
1183
00:52:19.639 --> 00:52:21.880
the w CW logo on it, the coins that they
1184
00:52:21.960 --> 00:52:24.360
throw out, and we just rolling the parade threw these
1185
00:52:24.440 --> 00:52:27.440
things out and it wasn't I did that three years
1186
00:52:27.480 --> 00:52:29.360
in a row, and the last year that I did
1187
00:52:29.400 --> 00:52:32.639
at w CW sent a camera crew to film it
1188
00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:35.440
and use that as b roll for my entrance, and
1189
00:52:35.559 --> 00:52:38.519
that never got made because WWE bought the company.
1190
00:52:38.800 --> 00:52:39.000
Wow.
1191
00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:43.760
Yeah, obviously hindsight being twenty twenty, the first year I
1192
00:52:43.840 --> 00:52:45.519
got to do that, I would have gone to whoever
1193
00:52:45.599 --> 00:52:47.480
I needed to go to and go, hey, why don't
1194
00:52:47.519 --> 00:52:49.000
we think about going and filling.
1195
00:52:48.800 --> 00:52:50.119
This and using this part of my b roll?
1196
00:52:50.239 --> 00:52:50.360
Right?
1197
00:52:50.760 --> 00:52:56.079
Yeah? Right. Then, when you're young man, you're too naive
1198
00:52:56.480 --> 00:52:59.519
and you're too passive, and you're too intimidated by your
1199
00:52:59.559 --> 00:53:02.119
circumst as is to really speak up because you're so
1200
00:53:02.239 --> 00:53:02.960
worried about heat.
1201
00:53:04.360 --> 00:53:08.000
Yeah, Fowers, that's great, great, advice for any wrestler that's
1202
00:53:08.760 --> 00:53:13.880
watching this right now, Uh, mark House that asks about
1203
00:53:13.960 --> 00:53:18.599
the about the video games that you were in specifically
1204
00:53:18.760 --> 00:53:21.079
money wise, or or what was that like for you
1205
00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:22.440
being in video games and all that.
1206
00:53:23.400 --> 00:53:26.400
The video games from a money perspective was the best
1207
00:53:26.519 --> 00:53:29.039
checks I ever got, you know obviously as far as
1208
00:53:29.079 --> 00:53:34.320
one check. Yeah, And I can createit EA Sports, and
1209
00:53:34.400 --> 00:53:36.440
I can create the video game with really getting me
1210
00:53:36.519 --> 00:53:37.199
my first job.
1211
00:53:37.639 --> 00:53:39.440
And the reason why is because I've been training at
1212
00:53:39.480 --> 00:53:40.159
the power Plant.
1213
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:43.400
I had a few matches on Saturday night and uh,
1214
00:53:43.679 --> 00:53:45.800
and you know the way things were geared back then.
1215
00:53:45.880 --> 00:53:47.719
They would even tell you at the power Plan when
1216
00:53:47.719 --> 00:53:50.199
they do the TV taping in Orlando where they would
1217
00:53:50.199 --> 00:53:52.840
do three months worth of Saturday night tapings in like
1218
00:53:52.920 --> 00:53:55.119
a week, you could go down there with your gear
1219
00:53:55.519 --> 00:53:57.400
and back then. Man, you can knock on the door,
1220
00:53:57.639 --> 00:53:59.320
get into the locker room, tell me you're from the
1221
00:53:59.360 --> 00:54:01.400
power Plant, you got your gear, and if they just
1222
00:54:01.480 --> 00:54:03.920
need an enhancement talent, man, please let me work it.
1223
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.480
So my first match ever.
1224
00:54:05.719 --> 00:54:08.039
In wrestling was about a four minute squash match with
1225
00:54:08.119 --> 00:54:12.320
Perry Sattern, but I wasn't under contract at that point,
1226
00:54:12.760 --> 00:54:15.360
and so the one point in my life or in
1227
00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:17.440
my career where I can say I really was asserted
1228
00:54:17.519 --> 00:54:19.559
in the right place at the right time. I would
1229
00:54:19.639 --> 00:54:22.400
be at the power plant every single day, and if
1230
00:54:22.440 --> 00:54:24.000
there was an opportunity at the power plant, I was
1231
00:54:24.079 --> 00:54:25.400
not shy about jumping in the ring.
1232
00:54:25.880 --> 00:54:27.519
One thing was for me.
1233
00:54:28.199 --> 00:54:31.159
I may have not been so self assured about my
1234
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:34.960
skills backstage and politic and on behalf of myself or
1235
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:37.480
speaking up for myself, but in the ring, I was
1236
00:54:37.599 --> 00:54:41.719
always confident, sure of what I was capable of. And
1237
00:54:42.440 --> 00:54:45.079
the EA Sports came to Atlanta all the way from
1238
00:54:45.199 --> 00:54:47.760
Vancouver with their crew because they were going to make
1239
00:54:47.840 --> 00:54:50.519
the very first video game they had ever made where
1240
00:54:50.559 --> 00:54:53.519
they used the motion capture suit, which was new technology
1241
00:54:53.599 --> 00:54:55.880
back then, and they're trying to figure out how they're
1242
00:54:55.880 --> 00:54:57.559
going to go about doing this. They knew they could
1243
00:54:57.559 --> 00:54:59.519
put a suit on somebody. If they put a suit
1244
00:54:59.559 --> 00:55:02.360
on somebody with the sensors, they could film that guy
1245
00:55:02.800 --> 00:55:06.800
and use that to as the skeleton for any other
1246
00:55:06.880 --> 00:55:09.400
wrestler and just kind of change it and distort it
1247
00:55:09.480 --> 00:55:12.199
however they needed to from a size perspective, and so
1248
00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:14.360
they came down just to film some moves and decide
1249
00:55:14.440 --> 00:55:17.519
what they wanted to do. Well, I'm in between, Matt
1250
00:55:17.599 --> 00:55:19.840
from meeting me, you you can probably vouch for this.
1251
00:55:19.960 --> 00:55:21.599
I'm one of those in between guys. I'm not a
1252
00:55:21.679 --> 00:55:23.800
really really big guy. I'm not a really really tiny guy,
1253
00:55:24.360 --> 00:55:27.719
and I've got some amateur wrestling background. And i got
1254
00:55:27.760 --> 00:55:31.039
the eyes in WCW because right when they first started
1255
00:55:31.079 --> 00:55:33.920
that cruiserweight push and brought in all the luchadors, I
1256
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:35.559
was one of the few American guys that could do
1257
00:55:35.639 --> 00:55:38.639
that luchador style. Maybe me and Billy Kidman could fly
1258
00:55:38.800 --> 00:55:40.960
around with Hoovey and Ray and those guys.
1259
00:55:41.400 --> 00:55:43.000
And so when we're.
1260
00:55:42.840 --> 00:55:45.239
Standing all around the ring, you know, one of those
1261
00:55:45.320 --> 00:55:48.519
types of circumstances. You guys have all kind of been
1262
00:55:48.599 --> 00:55:51.119
there where whatever's going on in the ring is going.
1263
00:55:51.039 --> 00:55:54.320
On in the ring, and all the other boys, yeah, yeah,
1264
00:55:54.440 --> 00:55:56.559
we're standing around the ring and they're talking about all
1265
00:55:56.599 --> 00:55:58.840
this stuff, and they go, Okay, who can do some
1266
00:55:59.159 --> 00:55:59.880
chain wrestling?
1267
00:56:00.119 --> 00:56:02.519
And then their mind they're thinking a lah Dean Malenko,
1268
00:56:02.880 --> 00:56:05.119
and I'm going, well, I was amateur. I was amateur
1269
00:56:05.159 --> 00:56:06.840
wrestler in high school, so I could always do the
1270
00:56:06.960 --> 00:56:07.559
chain wrestling.
1271
00:56:07.639 --> 00:56:09.360
Man, I could do it. Without even talking about it.
1272
00:56:09.400 --> 00:56:11.679
I could get in there with someone kaz Hayashi who
1273
00:56:11.760 --> 00:56:15.840
had limited skills when it came to talking English, but
1274
00:56:15.920 --> 00:56:17.320
we could get in the ring and just fill off
1275
00:56:17.360 --> 00:56:19.199
of each other and just go, go, go and trade
1276
00:56:19.400 --> 00:56:21.280
trade holes. So I got in there and did that
1277
00:56:21.639 --> 00:56:23.639
and did a lot of amateur stuff. And then they go, well,
1278
00:56:23.679 --> 00:56:26.119
who can do the power moves? Well, I raise my
1279
00:56:26.199 --> 00:56:29.320
hand and jump in there. For anybody else strong enough
1280
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:31.239
throw the steinersplexes.
1281
00:56:31.480 --> 00:56:33.480
I can press people over my head, whatever I need
1282
00:56:33.519 --> 00:56:35.679
to do. I'm pretty strong for my size and stout
1283
00:56:35.760 --> 00:56:38.159
for my size. And then who can do or can
1284
00:56:38.239 --> 00:56:40.360
run off the top rope? Raise my hand going there?
1285
00:56:40.440 --> 00:56:41.760
Do the herd come run off the top rope? The
1286
00:56:41.800 --> 00:56:44.199
whole deal, and so they go.
1287
00:56:44.440 --> 00:56:48.239
They go to uh W CW after filming all this
1288
00:56:48.360 --> 00:56:50.559
for about two days, and they go to the office
1289
00:56:50.599 --> 00:56:53.320
and they say, we want Lash to come up and
1290
00:56:53.480 --> 00:56:55.559
do the video game for us and be the be
1291
00:56:55.679 --> 00:56:56.800
the guy that does all the moves.
1292
00:56:57.440 --> 00:56:59.199
And they go, ah, well, you know he's not on
1293
00:56:59.360 --> 00:57:00.880
the contract. Can get one of the guys that are
1294
00:57:00.920 --> 00:57:03.039
on contract, so we don't have to pay them anything additional.
1295
00:57:04.679 --> 00:57:07.079
And EA Sports to their credit they go, now, this
1296
00:57:07.239 --> 00:57:10.119
cat has impressed us so much. He can do everything.
1297
00:57:10.199 --> 00:57:12.639
We don't have to get three cats. One that does
1298
00:57:12.760 --> 00:57:14.719
chane wrestling, one that does power and one that does
1299
00:57:15.159 --> 00:57:17.679
of high flying. We won't last because he can do
1300
00:57:17.800 --> 00:57:20.239
all that. And that was enough of a mark that
1301
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:21.880
I can mimic the other guy's gimmick.
1302
00:57:21.960 --> 00:57:24.079
You know, I can do that's the fun part.
1303
00:57:24.960 --> 00:57:28.440
I could do the holding whatever, and so struck like
1304
00:57:28.519 --> 00:57:32.480
Flair and so Ea Sports. To their credit, they fly
1305
00:57:32.639 --> 00:57:36.119
me up to Vancouver and they pay me. And at
1306
00:57:36.159 --> 00:57:38.199
first it started out really really sweet because the first
1307
00:57:38.199 --> 00:57:41.599
trip up there, man, was sixteen days straight and they
1308
00:57:41.679 --> 00:57:44.159
gave me like eight hundred dollars a day.
1309
00:57:46.119 --> 00:57:46.480
For them.
1310
00:57:47.360 --> 00:57:50.320
Yeah, and so that that felt really really good until
1311
00:57:50.440 --> 00:57:52.280
the second trip up there. They came up to me
1312
00:57:52.679 --> 00:57:55.400
and in their defense, they don't know any better. I
1313
00:57:55.639 --> 00:57:57.800
was even smart enough back then to know this had
1314
00:57:57.840 --> 00:57:59.840
to come from somebody in the office. But they walk
1315
00:57:59.920 --> 00:58:01.679
up to me with a new contract and you go, up,
1316
00:58:02.559 --> 00:58:04.480
We're gonna have to cut your pay from eight hundred
1317
00:58:04.480 --> 00:58:06.800
a day to four hundred a day because you're.
1318
00:58:06.760 --> 00:58:07.599
Just a jobber, right.
1319
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:08.559
That was a.
1320
00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:16.880
No. Yeah, God, hey, my Alabama place still went to, Hey,
1321
00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:19.960
I'm still I'm twenty years old and I'm making you know,
1322
00:58:20.519 --> 00:58:23.039
I'm nineteen twenty years old. I'm making four hundred dollars
1323
00:58:23.079 --> 00:58:23.760
a day. I'll take it.
1324
00:58:24.119 --> 00:58:26.880
Yeah, it's pretty sweet, but damn yeah.
1325
00:58:26.880 --> 00:58:28.880
Yeah, but that's the way it got worded. But anyway,
1326
00:58:28.920 --> 00:58:31.679
so I did about three different stints up there, and
1327
00:58:32.239 --> 00:58:34.440
it allowed me to make some really really good money
1328
00:58:34.480 --> 00:58:36.679
off of them. It guaranteed that I was in the
1329
00:58:36.760 --> 00:58:39.440
video game even though I wasn't really an established star yet,
1330
00:58:40.119 --> 00:58:43.480
and it also really got the eyes of w CW.
1331
00:58:43.960 --> 00:58:46.599
So when I came back from being up there at
1332
00:58:46.599 --> 00:58:50.039
EA Sports, that's when I was just at the Power
1333
00:58:50.079 --> 00:58:52.800
Plan on a random Friday not long after that, and
1334
00:58:52.840 --> 00:58:54.960
they just call me up and they go, hey, last
1335
00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:58.800
can you be at at Nitro in Minneapolis on Monday night?
1336
00:58:58.920 --> 00:59:01.440
I go absolutely, And they just wanted me to have
1337
00:59:01.559 --> 00:59:06.199
a good match with Billy Kidnon and that was the
1338
00:59:06.280 --> 00:59:08.760
debut man, and they had put the strap on him,
1339
00:59:08.840 --> 00:59:11.440
made him the Cruiserweight Champion, and they were just looking
1340
00:59:11.519 --> 00:59:13.920
for guys to feed him that he could have a
1341
00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:16.320
good competitive match with weekend week out and just be
1342
00:59:16.360 --> 00:59:19.360
a fighting champion. And I said absolutely, I'll be there.
1343
00:59:19.519 --> 00:59:22.119
So when I flew up there, I knew Billy well
1344
00:59:22.239 --> 00:59:24.559
enough by then and had done a few matches on
1345
00:59:24.639 --> 00:59:27.239
Saturday Night and stuff where he trusted me and knew
1346
00:59:27.280 --> 00:59:29.599
what I was capable of. And to his credit, he
1347
00:59:29.800 --> 00:59:31.559
wasn't just looking to eat me up. He wanted to
1348
00:59:31.639 --> 00:59:33.840
have a good back and forth match. And then you
1349
00:59:33.960 --> 00:59:36.840
add to that the fact that by then I had
1350
00:59:36.920 --> 00:59:38.920
kind of put my stick together in my mind. I
1351
00:59:39.000 --> 00:59:42.400
had worked that gimmick out man had and you know,
1352
00:59:42.559 --> 00:59:45.639
again in all seriousness, that there are people that wanted
1353
00:59:45.639 --> 00:59:47.599
to be in the wrestling business and they're listening to
1354
00:59:47.719 --> 00:59:52.400
this man. You can't over state how important it is
1355
00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:55.599
to think through what your character looks like to.
1356
00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:58.480
You, What do you believe in? Why do you believe it?
1357
00:59:58.679 --> 01:00:00.679
Because if I'm trying to convince the that they need
1358
01:00:00.760 --> 01:00:03.199
to believe something about me, I better believe it first,
1359
01:00:03.800 --> 01:00:06.000
and I better know it inside out and know who
1360
01:00:06.119 --> 01:00:08.719
I am and be true to that, be genuine and authentic.
1361
01:00:09.119 --> 01:00:11.920
And I had worked all that out enough and played
1362
01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:14.000
that over in my mind so many times, and by
1363
01:00:14.039 --> 01:00:15.920
the time I had that match with Billy Kidman, I
1364
01:00:16.079 --> 01:00:17.840
wasn't just taking bumps and doing moves.
1365
01:00:18.079 --> 01:00:19.679
I was taking bumps, doing moves and looking at the
1366
01:00:19.719 --> 01:00:20.400
crowd and going.
1367
01:00:21.760 --> 01:00:21.960
You know.
1368
01:00:24.639 --> 01:00:28.440
And you know, and the bookers in the back. The
1369
01:00:28.559 --> 01:00:31.199
guys didn't expect that. And when they saw a little
1370
01:00:31.239 --> 01:00:34.280
bit of charisma along with the working ability in the ring,
1371
01:00:34.840 --> 01:00:36.760
they didn't say anything to me. There was no sit
1372
01:00:36.840 --> 01:00:39.519
down with lash LaRue moment and talk to him about
1373
01:00:39.519 --> 01:00:41.320
putting them on the road. They just started booking me.
1374
01:00:42.159 --> 01:00:44.000
I just went from being at the power plant and
1375
01:00:44.039 --> 01:00:46.559
now suddenly I'm getting a booking sheet and I'm expected
1376
01:00:46.599 --> 01:00:50.679
to be places and they're paying me a nightly.
1377
01:00:51.360 --> 01:00:54.400
And not long after that, I have one more run
1378
01:00:54.519 --> 01:00:55.360
up to Vancouver.
1379
01:00:55.920 --> 01:00:59.320
I was frustrated up there and had to sit down
1380
01:00:59.360 --> 01:01:01.960
with tend to Be and Ted dB Issi and I
1381
01:01:02.079 --> 01:01:04.679
share a common faith, and so I sat down with
1382
01:01:04.800 --> 01:01:06.039
Ted and I asked him if I.
1383
01:01:06.039 --> 01:01:07.880
Could talk to him that night after we got through
1384
01:01:07.920 --> 01:01:09.599
with the day and everything else. And went to his
1385
01:01:09.679 --> 01:01:12.039
room and said, you know, Tam, I'm just frustrated man,
1386
01:01:12.159 --> 01:01:14.960
and I'd like a little advice and encouragement. I said,
1387
01:01:14.960 --> 01:01:16.119
I don't know what else I got to do to
1388
01:01:16.199 --> 01:01:19.280
get their attention, the company's attention. I said, you know, I'm.
1389
01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:24.440
Yeah, I've been there almost a year now, I'm in
1390
01:01:24.480 --> 01:01:26.079
the best shape of my life. I don't feel like
1391
01:01:26.159 --> 01:01:29.119
I could be more prepared physically. There's not a move
1392
01:01:29.159 --> 01:01:31.320
in the ring I can't do. And I know how
1393
01:01:31.360 --> 01:01:33.400
to put together matches. I could call a match even
1394
01:01:33.440 --> 01:01:36.440
on my own, even being in the business for so young,
1395
01:01:36.559 --> 01:01:38.719
you know, for such a short amount of time, I
1396
01:01:38.800 --> 01:01:40.440
feel like I could be more prepared mentally.
1397
01:01:40.880 --> 01:01:44.079
And he said, look, you need to get yourself ready spiritually.
1398
01:01:44.360 --> 01:01:48.039
And uh, because you're gonna you're gonna face more demons
1399
01:01:48.199 --> 01:01:51.360
and more opportunities to really let your life go off
1400
01:01:51.400 --> 01:01:53.400
the rails and things like that in this business and
1401
01:01:53.440 --> 01:01:55.360
you are anything else that's gonna be a rock and
1402
01:01:55.440 --> 01:01:57.519
roll lifestyle and you need to be ready for that.
1403
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:01.199
Oh man, I didn't think about that. So I really
1404
01:02:01.320 --> 01:02:04.000
kind of tried to get myself ready spiritually and mentally
1405
01:02:04.119 --> 01:02:07.039
for that. And man, it was like two or three
1406
01:02:07.119 --> 01:02:11.639
days later I had called up JJ Dylan, Yeah, you know, randomly.
1407
01:02:12.119 --> 01:02:14.280
He was in the office. He was doing talently Ason
1408
01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:15.960
and I went in there and I just had a
1409
01:02:16.039 --> 01:02:19.360
handful of pages of websites that were tribute websites to
1410
01:02:19.480 --> 01:02:24.039
lash Room that I just far copies of because you know,
1411
01:02:24.119 --> 01:02:25.920
it was still it was the Internet was such a
1412
01:02:25.960 --> 01:02:28.079
small thing at that point, man, and I went in
1413
01:02:28.119 --> 01:02:29.599
there and showed that. I said, well, I'm getting some
1414
01:02:29.719 --> 01:02:32.920
attention obviously, I've gotten, you know, some fan base going,
1415
01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:36.280
and I just need to know, like nineteen years old,
1416
01:02:36.280 --> 01:02:38.079
and I can't believe I'm saying this to them even
1417
01:02:38.119 --> 01:02:40.679
then something to be said for the balls of youth,
1418
01:02:40.800 --> 01:02:42.880
right and you go, Man, I need to know whether
1419
01:02:42.920 --> 01:02:45.079
or not I've got a future here in w CW
1420
01:02:45.239 --> 01:02:46.760
or if I need to pursue other options.
1421
01:02:49.760 --> 01:02:52.000
Yeah. My other option was to come back to Alabama
1422
01:02:52.000 --> 01:02:53.119
and dig ditches. Probably.
1423
01:02:54.800 --> 01:02:58.719
Yeah, it's track wow.
1424
01:02:59.039 --> 01:03:00.960
One randomly in the and I found out while I
1425
01:03:00.960 --> 01:03:02.760
was on the road. My wife called me and said, hey,
1426
01:03:02.880 --> 01:03:04.760
w CW just fedexed you a contract.
1427
01:03:07.840 --> 01:03:10.960
This has been an hour, but it seems like ten minutes.
1428
01:03:10.960 --> 01:03:12.199
I feel like we get we've known each other for
1429
01:03:12.320 --> 01:03:14.599
years ago. We keep talking. We definitely need a part
1430
01:03:14.679 --> 01:03:17.320
two with with last I think our fans are really gonna,
1431
01:03:17.760 --> 01:03:20.519
Like you mentioned earlier, you're so transparent, and I think
1432
01:03:20.559 --> 01:03:23.119
the fans are really gonna enjoy that. That's you know,
1433
01:03:23.199 --> 01:03:25.679
we try to do just one of our mottos here, Yeah,
1434
01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:29.039
be authentic and transparent. And I think, you know, the
1435
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:31.119
fans can see through the bullshit and when they listen
1436
01:03:31.159 --> 01:03:32.519
to this, they're gonna know that you're the real deal.
1437
01:03:32.559 --> 01:03:34.199
So I really appreciate you coming on here tonight.
1438
01:03:34.599 --> 01:03:36.840
Yeah, Man, thank you guys for having me man, And
1439
01:03:37.079 --> 01:03:38.639
I think that speaks a lot to just the type
1440
01:03:38.679 --> 01:03:40.960
of people that we all are and the meeting you
1441
01:03:41.079 --> 01:03:43.239
guys and getting to be around you and you Matt
1442
01:03:43.320 --> 01:03:45.880
and talking even the short amount of time we did.
1443
01:03:46.360 --> 01:03:49.159
You know, you find out really quick in this wrestling business, man,
1444
01:03:49.239 --> 01:03:52.039
that there are certain people that you gravitate towards because
1445
01:03:52.079 --> 01:03:53.920
we're like minded and we have the same type of
1446
01:03:53.960 --> 01:03:57.519
philosophy or the same type of perspective on life and
1447
01:03:57.639 --> 01:03:59.840
on the business. And those are the people that you
1448
01:04:00.039 --> 01:04:01.679
really feel like you can kind of grow with, you
1449
01:04:01.760 --> 01:04:04.280
can depend on, you can trust in the business and
1450
01:04:04.360 --> 01:04:07.760
outside the business. And you know, the reason why there's
1451
01:04:07.760 --> 01:04:10.440
clicks in the wrestling business is because of that sort
1452
01:04:10.480 --> 01:04:14.000
of thing. It's just it's a natural magnetism for one another.
1453
01:04:14.400 --> 01:04:16.079
You know, right at the gate, I felt like we'd
1454
01:04:16.119 --> 01:04:18.639
known each other forever. So this has been fun for me. Man.
1455
01:04:19.159 --> 01:04:21.480
Yeah, it's awesome to meet you and get to talk
1456
01:04:21.480 --> 01:04:23.400
to you like this, man, really truly, and.
1457
01:04:23.480 --> 01:04:25.960
Lash, if you lace up those boots one more time, Yeah, that's.
1458
01:04:25.800 --> 01:04:27.639
What I'm I'm hoping to see you around. Man.
1459
01:04:27.920 --> 01:04:29.840
I'm always ready for for a good match.
1460
01:04:29.920 --> 01:04:34.639
Baby. I saw Matt, I saw your your your tweet
1461
01:04:34.880 --> 01:04:37.840
a while back about some click in the indies. Right, So,
1462
01:04:37.920 --> 01:04:40.199
I'm wondering where I signed up to be part of
1463
01:04:40.239 --> 01:04:41.280
the car there it is.
1464
01:04:42.880 --> 01:04:44.599
I'd rather be on the opposite side of the ring
1465
01:04:46.559 --> 01:04:48.760
the Lash.
1466
01:04:48.800 --> 01:04:50.519
I know you're good, but you're good enough to carry
1467
01:04:50.519 --> 01:04:54.519
Matt Cardona. They're a good one. I don't know, Lash,
1468
01:04:54.679 --> 01:04:56.960
Where can you? Where can all our fans find it?
1469
01:04:57.039 --> 01:04:59.480
You have social media that plug the podcast, plug all
1470
01:04:59.519 --> 01:05:00.400
your stuff here.
1471
01:05:00.760 --> 01:05:02.920
All right? You can find me on x I'm an
1472
01:05:03.079 --> 01:05:10.280
at Lash can draw literally and and and uh literally.
1473
01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:13.039
And physically and then also you can also follow the
1474
01:05:13.199 --> 01:05:17.480
show adfree shows dot com. You can find my sixty
1475
01:05:17.559 --> 01:05:19.880
minute Tom Leman draw with the last three And that's
1476
01:05:19.880 --> 01:05:21.800
pretty much the extent of what I Man. I was
1477
01:05:21.840 --> 01:05:24.440
a ghost on social media for about ten years, so
1478
01:05:24.599 --> 01:05:25.880
it's all new to me.
1479
01:05:26.480 --> 01:05:26.880
All right.
1480
01:05:27.119 --> 01:05:28.840
Well, I love it. You get a new fan base
1481
01:05:28.920 --> 01:05:31.079
on your old fans, and we love you.
1482
01:05:31.199 --> 01:05:32.719
We'd love to keep you part of this major pod
1483
01:05:32.800 --> 01:05:35.079
family and do a part two of this interview because
1484
01:05:35.079 --> 01:05:36.280
I think our fans are really gonna love this.
1485
01:05:36.400 --> 01:05:38.480
So thanks a lot, Lash, Yeah, hey, thank you doing
1486
01:05:38.559 --> 01:05:40.320
man gotta do is reach out.
1487
01:05:40.360 --> 01:05:43.960
Anything you won't eat, appreciate it. Thank this