Shane Douglas interview

WEBVTT
00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:02.000
And this is the franchise main done.
00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:07.679
So right now, if you're listening to double ass labels to batch for all your great wrestling news, this is the podcast today.
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.640
And together we are the O's, apparently.
00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:38.399
And uh we have a O-boy.
00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:39.280
It's the O Boy.
00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.039
That is our tag team name.
00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:42.320
John Duck.
00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:43.439
John Duck.
00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:47.119
We have a very special guest today.
00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:55.359
We have the former ECW World Heavyweight Champion, the franchise, Shane Douglas.
00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:58.079
Cracks fingers area.
00:00:58.159 --> 00:00:59.039
How are you guys doing today?
00:00:59.280 --> 00:00:59.520
Good.
00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:00.000
How are you?
00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.119
You still represent representing the triple threat.
00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:04.959
Yes, but doing great.
00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:09.439
Not a complaint, but if there's any complaint, it's just a little bit too busy.
00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:11.599
I need to slow down a little bit.
00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:12.480
Alright.
00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:14.560
Are you still are you still wrestling?
00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:15.840
A couple times a month.
00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:17.599
Yeah, I still enjoy getting in the ring.
00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:19.200
I'm a lot more careful with it.
00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:28.079
But I it's just like when I started back out of out of semi-retetirement, the litmus test for me has always been, even back when I was younger, as long as I'm having fun.
00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:34.159
The problem is that you know, we I wouldn't have done this for as long as I've done it for going on this Thanksgiving my 44th year.
00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:38.560
Uh you know, I I wouldn't have stuck this long if I if I didn't like it.
00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.239
So I don't think that's ever going to be a thing where I just don't like it anymore.
00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:48.159
Uh but it's, you know, the body's it's starting to, you know, just it's not breaking down.
00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:49.200
It's just I'm getting older.
00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:58.879
You know, and and uh, you know, just at the pace we've all been at, you know, Moose has been working with me for coming up on 12, 13, 14 years, and uh he keeps the schedule pretty full.
00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:01.680
I can still do it, but it's it's it's rougher.
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:03.840
Uh but you know, I I'm blessed.
00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:09.680
I I tell people all the time, I've told my own kids this if your old man doesn't wake up tomorrow, don't shed a tear.
00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:11.199
I've had an amazing life.
00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:18.479
Uh, I've accomplished far more than I would have ever thought of, uh, or even knew that that door would be that avenue would be open to me.
00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:29.199
And you know, for the wrestling fans, I'm so appreciative because I can still remember the kid that used to sit there and stare at wrestling magazines and watch professional wrestling and meeting Dominic.
00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:30.560
Uh, I loved it.
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:44.960
If you'd have told that kid at 12, 13 years old he's gonna become the World Anyway Champion one day, he's gonna get to train under an amazing trainer, uh, train with guys like Mick and Cody and Brian Hildebrand, uh, I would have laughed at you.
00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:48.000
Like, I don't know what you're smoking, but I don't think it's gonna happen.
00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.879
Uh so like it's it's incredible, it really is.
00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:59.120
And for what the fans give us, uh, that they come and support us for all those years, and then now come to these conventions and you know to get a picture.
00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:08.879
What I'm happening quite often now is they'll come up and they'll hand me a little snapshot picture, and it's me with like an eight, nine-year-old kid against the wall or something.
00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:12.319
It's them, and they want to recreate that picture now.
00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:21.199
And so, like, that's just mind-blowing to me that hey, somebody's followed my career that long and have held on to that picture and now want to recreate that picture.
00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:22.400
I it just mind-blowing.
00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:27.680
It's just an incredible, incredible career uh that the fans have afforded me, and I'm I'm so appreciative of it.
00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:30.479
And I'll wrap with this on this uh topic.
00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:36.319
My kids asked me one time, like, hey dad, after working so hard to get accepted to medical school, why didn't you go?
00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:37.840
And I'd never thought about that.
00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.840
It's just something that sort of happened.
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.960
Uh, the same thing with uh teaching, I was a damn good teacher.
00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:45.120
I would have made a great government employee.
00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:49.039
Uh, I would have made it an even better orthopedic surgeon, which is what I was going to go into.
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:53.520
But I think the answer is I had to really sit down with myself and ask myself that question.
00:03:53.919 --> 00:04:04.479
And the answer I come to is as incredible as medicine would have been, uh as incredible as educating kids, there's nothing greater than when you teach a kid something.
00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:10.960
Three of my students went on to serve in the Pennsylvania legislature, and all three of them cited me as the reason what they learned in my class.
00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:13.599
Uh, you can't tell a teacher anything better than that.
00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:18.000
But as cool as that was, and as cool as medicine would have been, is I loved it.
00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:19.279
I couldn't get enough of it.
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:23.680
I'm like wrestling is still like a on like a mountaintop to me.
00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:30.639
This was stuff that as a kid, like that the kid I just mentioned to you, that 13-year-old kid, uh there was no internet.
00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:32.480
So you couldn't go, hey, is there any wrestling schools in there?
00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:33.920
I never even heard of a wrestling school.
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:39.040
I just figured these guys had amateur backgrounds and came from around the world and and did pro style.
00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:42.560
Uh so that would have, if I hadn't met Dominic, that would have never happened.
00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:50.319
But if the fans hadn't supported whether they hated me as a heel, loved me as a babyface, uh, I get now people come up and recite my career to me.
00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.240
Like they got my resume in their hand.
00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:54.879
And I always ask them how do you remember all that?
00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:56.480
Because I don't remember all that.
00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:58.240
And uh it really is amazing.
00:04:58.399 --> 00:04:59.439
The fans have been amazing.
00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.040
Every genre of entertainment says uh we are the greatest fans.
00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:04.959
I how can you argue with wrestling?
00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:12.720
I mean, you know, these people have supported us for decades and continue to watch and have memorized our careers.
00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.519
I mean, nothing to complain about and nothing to sob about it.
00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:17.920
I would, by the way, I hope to be around a whole lot longer.
00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:24.079
I'm sure I will be, but if I should happen to not wake up tomorrow, nobody should say, oh man, poor guy died young already.
00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:25.120
I had a great life.
00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:27.600
And uh, and go podcasts like this.
00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:28.800
Good stuff to me, man.
00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:29.759
Grow good stuff.
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:32.160
Uh, we we actually have a lot of questions.
00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:35.279
Um, if we could get through them, but we're very knowledgeable about you.
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:36.560
Um, we we we're big.
00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:37.680
I'm a good faker.
00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:43.439
So, first of all, what made you want to be a professional wrestler and where did you start?
00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:44.800
Oh, but I loved it.
00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:49.839
Uh you know, as kids, but me and my friends, and it's uh it's sort of an ironic is a twist into this.
00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:59.040
I was just uh two weeks, two or three weekends, three weekends ago, uh inducted into the uh Pittsburgh Sports Hall of Fame with uh Tony Dorsett.
00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:09.439
I mean, not in my same class, but Tony Dorsett's in there, uh Joe Namath, Mike Ditka, Ty Law, Pistol Pete Mary, and it's just an amazing uh uh sports hall of fame.
00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:19.600
And you know, people were asking me, yeah, but I had two tables of people sitting there, and uh a couple of them were the guys that had done this, how you asked about how I got into wrestling.
00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:24.480
A couple of them were were friends of mine that we built this ring and all and all the rest of it.
00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:26.639
Uh I hadn't seen in 30 plus years.
00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.279
And they showed up for this, and it we went out afterwards.
00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:30.240
It was great.
00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:37.120
And uh, so how we got in was my friends and I, Bill Peterson was the guy, he was a Pennsylvania State cop after that.
00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:47.519
Ran the Pennsylvania State police's uh lie detector tests, and uh a guy named Kelly Suan, uh we called him the Mad Bull, he has an alopecia, even had as a kid.
00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:49.040
No hair, no eyebrows.
00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:53.199
Uh, he's now working for Lockheed in the aerospace industry.
00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:54.879
I really accomplished people.
00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:59.040
Everybody in our group went on to become some, whatever you know, they lived out their dreams.
00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:02.800
And so I was uh 13 years old, they were 12.
00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:05.839
I hung out with class younger than me because we grew up together.
00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:16.079
We had seen a map a picture in Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a little black and white picture, about that big, of this guy that got his picture in there, kid that got his picture, he built this homemade ring.
00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:19.920
Now, I'm not being mean trying to be mean or anything, but it was a pathetic looking ring.
00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.560
It was carpet and vines and stuff like that.
00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:24.000
We were all pretty handy.
00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:26.720
And one of us bored about, we can build a better ring than that.
00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:34.959
So we went to the junkyard and relieved them of a few pieces of equipment and came back and built a pretty damn cool little ring.
00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:41.279
And after we built it, we rolled around for a couple weeks, got sort of got bored now where we're gonna store it, what are we gonna do with it now?
00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.879
And back then, Jerry Lewis used to do the Labor Day uh telephone, Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telephone for Muscared Mystrophy.
00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:56.480
And he used to in the breaks say, uh, hey kids, have a backyard carnival, play some games, send five, you know, make some five, ten bucks and send it in to help uh fight muscled dystrophy.
00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:59.279
So I blurted out, why not a backyard wrestling show?
00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:02.160
This is 1978, summer of 1978.
00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.920
I'm guessing we are the world's first backyard wrestling company.
00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:14.959
Um once we committed to that, we had to get permission from the excuse me one second.
00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:19.040
We had to get permission from the local uh chapter of muscular dystrophy.
00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:25.040
Excuse me, every time I tell this story, make sure I tell this woman's name.
00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:32.159
Because even as a 13-year-old kid, you could not help but be impressed of what a warrior this woman was.
00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:41.679
Her name is Angeline Paparella, she had been a nurse that had contracted adult onset muscular dystrophy, completely immobile, leaning back, head resting on a thing.
00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.559
She could move a couple fingers about like that.
00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:51.360
And she, you know, even as a kid, how you know that you couldn't ignore that.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:58.000
And uh she called me, I think she got to take it back to these young kids that wanted to raise money for muscular dystrophy.
00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:02.159
She, I was the because I was 13, I was the oldest, I was the point contact person.
00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:07.600
And uh she called me up and she said a day or two later, and she said, Hey, there's a wrestler that was local, there's an Italian guy.
00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:08.960
It's a Bruno San Martino.
00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:10.559
She says, No, it's not Bruno.
00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:11.919
And she fumbled with the name.
00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:13.759
She said, It's like Dominini, Dominic.
00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.559
Well, Dominic and Dino Bravo were tag champs at the time.
00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:20.399
And, you know, so you know, fans of wrestling, we love Dominic Deucci.
00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.159
Had no idea he lived in Pittsburgh, let alone six, seven miles from my house.
00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:25.679
So she gave me the phone number.
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:34.799
My mother had to drive me out, and his wife came out on the stoop and she said, Dominic's not home right now, he's on the road, but I've spoken to him.
00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.039
He's not sure if he'll be in that weekend.
00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.519
But if he is, he might stop by.
00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.440
Well, that didn't sound real certain to us.
00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:48.159
We all thought, if we tell you know, our friends and stuff, Dominic Denutice is going to be in and doesn't show, we're gonna look like morons.
00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:49.840
So we didn't advertise him.
00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.320
We ended up drawing about uh we made about 250 bucks for muscular dystrophy.
00:09:54.480 --> 00:10:07.840
Bill Peterson and I, this the the the the future state cop went uh to Pittsburgh and were on the we were on one of the breaks on the Labor Day Telethon, and uh during the first match, we had four matches.
00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:13.919
During the first match, this great big white LT, look at a barge coming in, it was huge.
00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:17.919
And the door opened, and he, you know, kids, he'd a barrel getting out of the car.
00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:19.519
He was so thick and big.
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:25.360
And uh he got I think Schmidt, like these kids like doing a pretty good job with this.
00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:29.600
He got involved in a couple of matches, and then afterwards, my brother-in-law was taking pictures.
00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:32.480
And uh I'll tell you what, I'll pull it up on my phone.
00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:36.000
This is one of the there were a lot more pictures that have disappeared after the divorce.
00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:38.080
But uh let me see here.
00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:40.559
Uh that seems to happen a lot.
00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:41.919
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:44.480
My mother used to say don't sprout legs and walk off.
00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.759
Well, my mother's wrong, so uh let me see Greeko.
00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:52.000
So uh there we go.
00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.720
I hope this shows up on camera well enough.
00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:00.559
I don't think it's turned sideways.
00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:01.919
You can see that.
00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:07.679
You can always send the picture or have um your uh Can you guys see that?
00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:08.399
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:09.679
Yeah, we actually see it.
00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:10.320
Yeah, that's great.
00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:12.159
Okay, so you can see Dominic there to my left.
00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:18.639
That's me on the wall with the uh navy blue uh uh top on uh jacket.
00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:24.080
So right before that picture's taken, he said, How old are you, punks anyway?
00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:26.080
The show was over at this time, this is after the show.
00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:27.919
And I said, Well, I'm 13 and they're 12.
00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:28.799
How old are you?
00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:33.200
And he went like this, he looked around and he went, never ask a wrestler's age, a fucking punk.
00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:35.440
Jokingly, you know.
00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:37.600
And uh he and I just hit it off.
00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.279
He would call me up out of the blue and say, Ham, I have a show tonight down in Steubenville.
00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:42.720
Andre's gonna be the one to go.
00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:43.039
Yep.
00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:47.519
And so Dominic D'Nuzzi's coming picking me up and dead, like, fucking kidding me.
00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:52.080
Uh and it it I think later, like before he died, he was just the way he would talk.
00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:57.919
I because he had he'd had a daughter, but he had had his wife had been pregnant with a son before the daughter came.
00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:11.840
And uh she's ready to deliver, she's in in in uh uh labor, and the doctor was at a party drinking like a whiskey, uh I mean a golfing outing or something, and the baby suffocated, uh cord around his neck.
00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:19.600
And sorry, you know, the immigrants uh you know they're they're big on the on boys, uh, you know, because of their upbringing, uh, working in the farm and stuff.
00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:25.200
And he grabbed the doctor and was gonna throw him down the stairs, and his dad grabbed his arm and said, Don't throw your life away.
00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:29.519
So I think Dominic, as he got older, sort of saw me like as a son-like figure.
00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:31.600
And I very much looked at him like sort of like a father.
00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:35.440
I had a great father, uh, but he was sort of like a father figure to me.
00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:40.720
And uh and opened all these doors to meet guys like you and and and get this career.
00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:46.159
It's it's just really amazing to me how you know how how weird the world works, you know?
00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:50.159
Alright, so skipping ahead a little bit.
00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.159
The first time I saw you was in Bill Watts' UWF.
00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:54.720
Yeah.
00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:58.240
And what was it like working for Watts?
00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:10.879
Because he's just such a legendary promoter in the UWF, you know, from Mid-South to the UWF, for fans who don't know, that is some of the best episodic television of all time.
00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:16.080
They were so far ahead of the curve in the way they made their presentation.
00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.960
So, what was it like working with them and any memories of it?
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:23.120
In real time, as you're doing, very intimidating.
00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:27.440
Uh, I was about a buck ninety-five, maybe two oh five in that range.
00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:32.240
Uh, Bill was 6'4, 340, 350, a big, big guy.
00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:35.279
Uh, his his pinkies were like my thumbs.
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:40.639
And uh, you know, but he also like, you know, Eddie Gilbert's the one that hired me.
00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:43.360
Uh, they came north and they'd worked a loop with Dominic.
00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:47.200
Uh, because Bill and Bill Watson and Dominic could run the roads together back in the day.
00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.840
So when he was getting hot and tried to go national, he sent half of his crew up.
00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.399
So the first half show was Dominic and all of it.
00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:56.399
Dominic was the last match before intermission.
00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:59.600
Me and Mick always did the curtain jerk, uh, Mick Foley.
00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:02.799
And then the second half of the show was the UWF guys.
00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:13.039
And you're right, that that television came on Thursday night in Pittsburgh at 7 o'clock, and it became super duper hot, like almost immediately.
00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:17.840
Uh, and what was different about it is I've looked back and tried to figure out like why did it stand out so much?
00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:19.840
A, they had amazing talent.
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:28.399
Uh, you know, pretty much anybody that was anybody in the WWF at the beginning of The Rise, uh, or even WCW, had gone through Mid-South.
00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:37.679
You know, you had Rock and Roll Express, you had the uh Fantastics, uh DB Aussie, the uh uh Michael Hayes and the you know the uh free birds and Dr.
00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:38.320
Death there, too.
00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:43.759
I mean, just this ongoing Missy Hyatt, just loaded talent.
00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:51.200
And uh Bill's approach to the wrestling business was always the babyface chasing the heel.
00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:53.919
Uh in other words, the heels over, the baby face always chasing.
00:14:54.080 --> 00:15:01.039
This facing, once the hero grabs the gold, once they become, you know, they they they win, there that's sort of the end of the story.
00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:04.080
Uh because nobody wants to see the hero lose or die or whatever.
00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:11.679
So Bill always had the heat on the heels and had the babyface chasing the belt, where Vince would later say he believes the fans should always go home happy.
00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:14.480
Uh so just different approach to the philosophies.
00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:16.159
Uh, I hadn't met Bill.
00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:25.679
I was there for about two weeks, and I hadn't met Bill, and uh, you know, we were doing the house shows, but about 10 days, two weeks in, we had a TV taping in Tulsa.
00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:36.720
We were told, Eddie was running the shows, we were told that Bill, even though Bill was technically the booker, that he was out looking for investors that you know try to amass enough money that he could go ahead and have events.
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:42.559
And so at this Tulsa TV taping, this is the first night I meet Bill.
00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:47.039
And uh I was first match on the taping.
00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:51.120
I forget if it was dark or televised match, but I worked with Eddie Gilbert.
00:15:51.279 --> 00:16:04.720
Obviously, Eddie Gilbert called the entire match, and not that I even at that point would have known what constitutes a good or bad match, it just felt like a good match, and I knew Eddie was, you know, certainly knew how to call a match, great heel.
00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:14.720
And I'm sort of floating back to the dressing room because this is my first time ever at a wrestling TV taping, and I'm not just enhancement town, I'm part of the crew.
00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:16.879
Obviously, I put him over, but it that didn't matter.
00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:19.519
I was just gonna work with Eddie Gilbert on TV.
00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:21.600
And so I come back to the curtain.
00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:26.000
There was a second curtain about 30 feet back, and the dressing room door to my right.
00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:28.960
The second curtain back there had the UWF logo on it.
00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:33.519
And Bill was standing right in front of the cowboy hat on, leaning on one hip.
00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:39.600
And as I got neared him, as I got closer to him, uh I was gonna introduce myself because I hadn't met him yet.
00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:41.919
But the look on his face, he didn't look happy.
00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.720
He looked pretty, pretty pissed off, in fact.
00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:46.320
So I'll introduce myself later.
00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.240
So I walked by him, I went, hey Bill.
00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:49.440
And I went to walk into that.
00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:54.559
Like as soon as I said that and take one step, he goes, and this ton of voice, what the fuck was that?
00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:59.919
And I stopped dead in my tracks, and I'm in my head, like quantum computing, like, is he being serious?
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:00.480
Is he ripping?
00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.559
Surely he knows how to call it the match.
00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:11.200
And uh I quickly settled because I knew he and Dominic could run the roads together, so I figured Dominic called him and said, Hey, jazz the kid a little bit when you see him, you know.
00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:13.119
And I looked at him, I cracked a grin.
00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:14.480
I was gonna say nice rip.
00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:15.680
I didn't get a syllable out.
00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:24.319
When I cracked that grin, he came at like a grizzly bear, slammed me into the wall of his face right here, poking me like hard, with it spitting in my face.
00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:32.480
And the tone of voice was was such that I thought he's at some point gonna say, get your bag and get the fuck out, you're fired.
00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:33.759
That was the tone.
00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:37.279
But here's what he said to me don't ever turn your fucking back on the camera.
00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:42.720
If you turn your fucking back on the camera, it means the fucking people at home don't see you, and that means I don't fucking make money.
00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:44.000
And guess what, tough guy?
00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.880
That means you don't fucking make money, and walked away.
00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:47.920
Well, I'm rattled.
00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.519
You know, I'm not you know, big guy, first day of work, the boss, owns the company.
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:54.960
Right as he finished up, here comes Eddie through the curtain.
00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:59.279
Eddie had, I don't know if you guys ever met Eddie or or watched him perform a great performer, great monster.
00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:00.079
Yeah, he was.
00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:01.200
I've seen some matches, yeah.
00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:06.799
And you know, he he always had this sort of you know, happy go-lucky beeboping around thing and temper and stuff too.
00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:09.680
But usually that was, I think he was smiling because it was a good match.
00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:10.720
He liked the match.
00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:12.319
But he saw Bill do that.
00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:16.319
So as Bill's walking away, he comes b bobbing through and he comes up to me and he goes, What do you yell at you about?
00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:17.519
And I told him what he said.
00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:19.920
He went, Well, don't make that mistake twice.
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:28.160
And so they convinced me like when Bill yells at you about something, you can screw everything else up, but whatever he yelled at you about, don't fuck that up again.
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:31.759
Uh he was he was hard to work for.
00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:34.720
As a as a young kid, I was educated.
00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:40.240
I'd been college bottom and everything, and I I didn't need you to come yell and spit in my face and threaten me.
00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.039
Come tell me, hey, you did this wrong, fix it.
00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:44.240
And I'll fix it.
00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:46.000
Um I'm not gonna argue with your fight.
00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:46.960
You own the company.
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:52.079
But in time, I'm sure you probably heard in previous interviews, I was pretty rough on Bill.
00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:58.400
He, you know, he was an asshole and he did this stuff, and you know, he's a pain in the ass to work for a bully, all that kind of thing.
00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:00.400
And I still stand by all those comments.
00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:06.960
But as I've gotten older, my mom used to say, don't get to be 50 without living it, meaning the you know, the wisdom that you hopefully pick up in that time.
00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:11.039
As I look back, first of all, look at those names I next heard about UWF, Junkyard.
00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:18.319
I mean, these guys were, you know, most of the guys in those wrestling dressing rooms are pretty tough guys, they'd have an extensive amateur background.
00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:22.319
Uh, they're great bar fighters like Dick Slater or Murdoch.
00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:32.640
Uh, but I think Bill realized as he was getting older, especially, that if he didn't keep the inmates in line, the inmates would be running the asylum.
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.200
And once they took over, there'd be no getting him back in line.
00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:39.119
So it was just a one-size, he didn't have time to, okay, well, I don't need to yell at Shane.
00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:44.559
I could talk to him, but this guy got to yell at, and this guy, I just got to do, you know, maybe grab him by his throat.
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.720
It was a one-size fit-all because you have this gigantic company to run.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:56.240
And you know, Bill, and what I always finish up with as I talked about that, is you know, you guys are obviously familiar with UWF and Mid-South.
00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:05.440
Go back and see if you can give me a name that left Mid-South with UWF that wasn't great at the craft.
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:09.039
They all everybody that came out of there were great workers.
00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:12.799
And I I think in large part because of the way Bill ran the ship.
00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:18.640
So, all right, my next question, because I am doubling up here.
00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:28.240
Jumping ahead, WCW, you get to be tag team champions with one of the goats, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat.
00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:31.599
What was that like working with him?
00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:34.319
Well, pennies from heaven.
00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:42.240
I mean, it was aside from him just being like the nicest guy in wrestling, like legit, you know, in a business full of assholes like me.
00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:48.640
Um, he he never criticized uh it like like Billboard.
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:50.559
Like he never he he never got in the car.
00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:59.759
We always spoke after the match, driving uh back to the hotel, and he would say, uh, not one time did he ever say to me, Oh, shame, man, you really fucked up tonight.
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:06.160
Even when I did, you know, he would say to me, Hey, tonight when that spoke a little bit jerky, uh, you know, herky jerky.
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:09.759
Instead of doing that, what if you'd have done this move, this move, this move?
00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:13.519
Let it breathe for like 10 seconds, and then finished off with that spot.
00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:20.880
And while he would be saying that, the way my brain works, I was a visual learner, so I had photographic memory, which is why I was always good in history.
00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:25.200
And as he'd be saying that in the car, it's pitch black outside.
00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:30.960
I'm looking out the window, and I could literally see, like I'm watching a video, what he's saying.
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:34.160
And I'd go, Oh wow, I never thought you could do that.
00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:38.559
Um, he was he is such a master of our business.
00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:47.839
Uh getting put with him for me, uh I I believe Dominic was a great, you know, one of the best trainers of all time, uh, and just a damn good guy.
00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:53.359
Uh, you know, there's a lot of guys that know our business, there's a lot of guys that are great at our craft.
00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.440
But uh Ricky was able to take this to like a different level.
00:21:57.599 --> 00:21:59.759
Uh, I didn't know you could do double heats.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.720
Uh you know, false comeback and then the real comeback.
00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:10.240
Uh there I I always say Ricky Steamboat made took wrestling out of black and white, and it became technicolor to me.
00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:12.000
Like watching him do this stuff.
00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:22.960
And and the way he taught was so, especially after Bill, it was so appreciated that he didn't yell and scream and tell you when you fuck, you know, you fucked the match up tonight or whatever.
00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:26.960
Um he he'll say to if you interview him, ask him this.
00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:33.839
Uh I I love Ricky, I'm I consider him a dear friend, even though we don't see each other a whole lot anymore.
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:38.640
Uh he was easy to travel with, loved going to the gym, never out partying.
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:41.200
And so that was like for me exactly what I needed.
00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:46.240
But he he has this saying, he'll say to me, You're my second favorite partner.
00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:48.160
And and I know what he means by that.
00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:50.880
I don't take any slight on that at all.
00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:56.160
You know, he and Jay Youngblood, and then of course Jay dying young, they were an incredible tag team.
00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:00.880
And Jay would have probably been right there on the level with Steamboat had he not passed away so early.
00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:04.960
And so I always tell him, I'll be I'll happily take second fiddle to Jay Youngblood.
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:07.920
Uh Ricky, if you've ever have you ever met Ricky?
00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:08.240
No.
00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:13.839
No, we would like we actually wanted to uh we're we want to attempt to interview him at some point.
00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:15.440
Oh, he'd he'd be great.
00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.000
He's uh no airs about him.
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:26.880
Like, you know, most of us were taught you know, stay in character and you know do these things and like sort of keep that wall up in the mystique, sort of like kiss not taking their makeup off.
00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:30.319
Um Ricky has none of that pretense.
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.160
Ricky's just a guy that loves wrestling.
00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:38.160
Uh he goes out there and just happens to be, like you said, one of the goats, right?
00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:40.079
He's just that's just coincidence.
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:44.160
Um but he loves the sport of wrestling, uh adores it.
00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.359
And you can see how he attacks it when he when he's in the ring.
00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:54.480
Uh he, you know, we don't have to like get into all the accolades of how good Rick is in the ring, but I'll point something out.
00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:04.400
Uh, if you watch closely when he and I are working, uh tagging, you know, it's enough for me to just take care of me, do my stuff, make sure I'm I don't fuck something up.
00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.799
Uh you'll see Ricky.
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:14.240
Like the first thing was when we first get put together, he said, okay, let's alternate heat on you one night, next night me.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:17.519
You come back, I'll make the comeback tonight, tomorrow you make the comeback.
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:19.359
I hated making comebacks.
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:21.680
And uh and he knew that.
00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:26.480
And so he would, you know, get Ricky Steam, but he's already a legend at this point.
00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:27.759
I get put with him.
00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:33.279
And I was still like a mid-card guy, so I there would have been nobody angry.
00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:40.319
Uh he would have been completely within his rights to say, okay, Shane, you sell most of the time, and I'll get the hot tag and make the comeback and everything.
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:41.759
It was opposite that.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.839
And he even like lied to me about the let's alternate back in every night.
00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.599
Tonight, me, tomorrow you.
00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:52.160
About 50% of the time when it was my time to sell, I love to sell, it was easy.
00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:53.599
I didn't have to think about it.
00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:58.319
And he'd be in the ring, I'm waiting for him to get a tag so I can get and get the heat on me.
00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:00.480
And he would end up like getting cut off someplace.
00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:03.839
And if you remember, like Rick would take these bumps and he would sit up and he'd go like this.
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.240
Well, the reason that me after he cut his hair short, he he wasn't real good at calling.
00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:09.839
So he did this to sort of cover up.
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:16.400
Like he would yell at me, get into the match, partner, because I'm out there watching Ricky fucking steel, but I'm like this.
00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:19.839
Oh, I'm supposed to be out here working, you know.
00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:28.079
Yeah, I said not only is he taking care of his stuff, but he's taking 50% of my stuff and then also directing me on the apron.
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:33.279
I mean, it's like a maestro, you know, just okay, obos, you come on in now, strings back off.
00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:35.359
Uh, he was just amazing that way.
00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:40.079
And he had this knack that I've never seen anybody else have the ability to do this.
00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:50.480
And almost like Svendali, uh, like a maestro, if he wanted that side of the building to pop, he could get that side of the building to pop, but not this side.
00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.119
And I'd ask him, like, what are you paying them all?
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:54.160
Like, how are you doing that?
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:56.559
And he goes, Oh, it's just experience, just experience.
00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:59.039
I got some experience under my 40-something years.
00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:00.559
I can't do that now.
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:07.599
Uh, he he is really one of those guys that turned it into a science and then attacked it from that point of view.
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:14.720
And uh the fact that he was so disarming, like again, he would have been well within his rights to say, you sell every night and I'll make the comeback.
00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:21.359
But he knew the reason I was put with him was they wanted him to fill me out, to complete, build this kid.
00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:24.319
And uh, and boy, did he take he really go to that?
00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:29.440
He was uh he's such a pleasure to be around that it's not at all.
00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:33.920
Sometimes the road could be hard, especially when you're in a car with somebody you don't like or that is a pain in the ass.
00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:36.000
You got none of that with Ricky Steamboat.
00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:40.799
He's he's just a gentleman, and I always kid himself but half-heartedly, like half-ribbed.
00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:43.279
He is seriously the nicest guy in wrestling.
00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:44.160
What do you think?
00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:45.920
How he got put would be I have no idea.
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:48.079
What do you think you learned the most from him?
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:51.359
That's kind of just a follow-up question, but timing.
00:26:51.519 --> 00:27:02.000
Uh this thing happened in WCW, uh, because if you remember, me and Ricky would uh, you know, pretty much go like damn near an hour every night with Brian and Steve.
00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:10.160
And uh we would I want to say we were in Savannah, someplace in Georgia, Grizzly Smith, uh Jake's dad, was the agent.
00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:15.759
Now Grizzly was like 6'7, 6'8, big guy, and had this real deep voice like this.
00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:22.480
And uh the Steve Sting was wrestling with Vader uh for the world title match, the main event.
00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:26.480
Well, they hated following us because Ricky would go out to a program-hour clinic.
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:34.799
And so for the first time in history in WCW, the semi-main became the last match, and the main event became the next last match.
00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:38.079
They wanted to go out and do six, seven minutes and hit the finish and go.
00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:41.599
Well, they turned the tables on us because when they did that, the fans are not ready to go home.
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:43.039
They've seen the main event.
00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:49.119
And so, like, the crowd would be like, oh man, this they're bored, like not really into it, like ready to go.
00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:50.720
And you know, I said, What are we gonna do?
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:51.440
How do we get him back?
00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:53.039
He goes, just follow my lead.
00:27:53.359 --> 00:28:05.519
And uh we would go out there and we'd do like several minutes of pushing and shoving and the referee getting in between us, and you know, heels trying to sneak up behind us, I was catching and just a whole lot of just rigmarole, just mumbo jumbo.
00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:09.920
But about five, you know, when we first start this, the crowd would be like, oh man, another match.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:11.759
Oh, come on, let's do what time is it?
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:28.240
But as Ricky would start doing this, and again, me, Brian, and Steve are just following his lead, you'd see them start to not like oh hooray, but like right, not right back to pop, but there would be this transition of like, let's get the hell out of here to hey, what's the what's going on here?
00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:33.759
Hey, this looks interesting, and then at some point when Ricky would see the crowd go like this.
00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:40.160
He'd say, Ring the bell, ref, and then we you know do 45-50 minutes at that point.
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.640
Uh I never knew how to do any of that prior to Ricky.
00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:51.680
And then you watch him working, and it's just it's like watching an artist just pull out his paints and his palette and just start to work.
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:56.640
Um, Ricky always walked around with two styrofoam cups, coffee and a spitter.
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:00.400
He'd put a two in, and then he'd walk around.
00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:03.839
Like it was not never assumed that let's just do the same match we had last night.
00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:04.960
That was a pretty good match.
00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:15.680
Every night, there might be a few spots the same or whatever, but Ricky would go on this walk, drinking his coffee, sit down on the stands up there, walk around a little bit more, go down the stairs, go into the back, come back.
00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:19.599
Then about 30, 40 minutes, he'd come to me and Brian and Steve, okay, follow me, I got it.
00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:24.559
And we'd go into the room and sit down and say, Okay, tonight we're gonna do this, heat's gonna be on him, or this is how we're gonna get it.
00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:31.920
And he would just lay out this general match, he very much like a uh a leader, you know, just like, okay, kids, sit down.
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:33.279
Here's how we're gonna get through this.
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:41.039
And then Brian and Steve were such a great heel team, like they would just fill their stuff in between, and you know, I would just keep following Ricky's lead.
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:45.279
It was uh honestly like stealing money, it was so much fun.
00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:52.640
There was you know, when you're on the road for extended periods like we were back then, 300 plus you know, 350 plus days a year.
00:29:52.799 --> 00:30:00.480
Uh the time with Ricky, even though it was like six, seven months, it seemed like a blink of an eye to me when I look back and think of the career, like the time with him.
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:15.759
I we loved every moment of it, but when they uh you know took me away from him, uh the the whole finish they did of dropping the belt, it was so obvious that it was so uh rigged, you know, just so phony, fake wrestling looking.
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:18.000
You know, they had the basks on, Dos Ombres.
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:21.839
Uh the uh the the Shane Douglas character was never me.
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:24.160
I was off, I had to have shoulder scoped.
00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:30.240
And I needed like three, four weeks, maybe two and a half, three weeks at least, then we could drop the belts right.
00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.279
And uh they said, no, no, we gotta get this done, we've got to get committed.
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:34.480
And so I'm home.
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:44.799
Uh and I'm I used to go to the grocery store like at midnight, and I I'm walking to the grocery store, there's another guy in there, big wrestling fan, and he keeps looking at me, keeps looking at me, keeps looking at me.
00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:51.680
And finally comes over and he goes, I just saw you get beat tonight on the pay-per-view.
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:58.400
And I made a joke like, Well, that makes me faster than Muhammad Ali then because remember, Muhammad Ali could just turn the light off and be in bed before the light went out.
00:30:58.559 --> 00:31:04.799
Um, I made it from Atlanta or wherever we were for the pay-per-view and back to Pittsburgh in about like 35, 40 minutes.
00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:09.279
So uh I called Ricky and he told me what they had done.
00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:14.160
They didn't clear it with me, obviously not they had to, but you know, out of professional respect, I would think.
00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:15.920
And I said, Why do they do that?
00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:18.079
I could be I could be there in two weeks.
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:19.839
He goes, I don't know, Shane.
00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:20.960
I don't know, I don't know.
00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:23.039
It's the I would have done it this way.
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:26.319
Uh and everybody for years, I think, misinterpreted.
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:29.920
If you remember at the end of that match, what does Ricky Steamboat do immediately?
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:32.480
Pulls his mask off, right?
00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:35.039
And everybody said, Oh, he was burying you, right?
00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:35.839
Making you look bad.
00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:39.519
I said, No, you don't think you don't know how steamer works, how his brain works.
00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:44.880
He did that because if he took his mask off, why didn't Shane take his mask off?
00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:46.319
Because that's not really Shane.
00:31:46.720 --> 00:31:49.680
It was either uh Tom Zank or Brad Armstrong.
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:52.240
Now, both of them had waist like this.
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:55.519
I had a 34-inch waist when I was in eighth grade.
00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:57.680
Not at all built like either one of those guys.
00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:00.240
They were lean and chiseled out uh build.
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:03.200
I was a thicker, you know, uh smoother build.
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:14.000
And uh it just was again one of those things that when wrestling is not done correctly, it just looks so blah, so shit, so non-inspiring.
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:16.799
And you know, and I think that that was the same thing.
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:22.720
Uh you know, Ricky was I don't know how much more I could go on, but you know, I could do for hours and hours just putting them over.
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:24.319
He that was such a blessing.
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:27.920
He asked earlier, what was the thing the biggest thing that I learned?
00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:33.839
Uh all the nuanced stuff I told you that I never knew you could do, but he taught me how to be a main inventor.
00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:37.039
Dominic trained us to get into the business with the basics, how to be safe.
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:42.960
Uh, under Bill Watts and all the talent there, I learned how to throw punches, I learned how to do spots, I learned this and that.
00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:52.960
Ricky Steamboat took this snot-nose kid that didn't know how to and wasn't very akin to making comebacks, and he forced me into the fire.
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:54.079
He forged me.
00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:58.400
And he took this by the nose and dragged me from mid-card up to main event.
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:01.359
And for that, you know, he and I will be friends to the day we die.
00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:06.000
Um, he is such an amazing talent and and a better person.
00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:12.559
And so, like, for me, that was like some of the best time memories that I have in the business are working with Ricky.
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:14.720
It's just great, great stuff.
00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:17.279
Josh?
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:18.000
No, no, no.
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:20.720
I've been hogging his time.
00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:24.480
You get to go and you get to ask the two questions I know you really wanted to ask.
00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:27.680
Now, I'll take it, I'll take that one after.
00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:28.160
Okay.
00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:29.279
But you get to go.
00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:32.079
I know you're chomping at the bit to ask those two questions.
00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:34.799
So I you like you don't understand.
00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:41.039
Like the energy coming off of him right now is palpable as he's like, Josh, you've been hogging the whole thing.
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:44.160
Move let me talk, god damn it.
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:49.599
But can in my defense though, when we had our Sam Houston interview, he dominated the whole thing.
00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:50.799
I barely got to talk.
00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:52.000
This is my revenge.
00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:55.359
It's either that or I belly-to-belly his ass through this table.
00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:57.039
So he's got a choice right now.
00:33:57.200 --> 00:33:59.200
So yeah, now you can talk.
00:33:59.440 --> 00:34:00.960
Now you can talk.
00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:02.160
You sure?
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:02.960
Okay.
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:05.359
I'll take the matter under advisement.
00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:07.920
I have to stop for a drink, so yeah, you can talk.
00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:15.599
Going on to uh ECW here, uh throwing down the NWA title, I'm sure you've been asked a million times.
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:22.320
But in the the real feeling of it, and I mean, we all know about you know professional wrestling and everything.
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:30.079
Um, but what the the real m feeling that you felt by throwing that down, and they can kiss my ass.
00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:32.400
I mean, what what was it like?
00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:35.199
And I mean, it was just you and Paul that knew, right?
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:36.800
Me, Paul and Todd Gordon.
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:38.159
And Todd Gordon, yeah.
00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:41.679
Um, I've I've heard other people come out and say they were aware of it.
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:46.880
No, they weren't, they couldn't have been, because I hadn't made my mind up until the promo.
00:34:47.360 --> 00:34:52.400
And uh Paul had come to me and said, you know, him and Todd pulled me aside.
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:54.559
I forget it was the hotel, but it was away from everybody.
00:34:54.639 --> 00:34:55.920
We were just the three of us.
00:34:56.079 --> 00:34:57.760
And Paul said, I have an idea.
00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:00.000
And uh threw the idea at me.
00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:07.840
And what I appreciated about working for Paul Heyman was that he never came to me and said, Okay, this is what you're doing.
00:35:08.079 --> 00:35:15.119
Uh like when it came to like a big thing like this, because remember that there was a lot of oper or a lot of chance that that didn't work.
00:35:15.360 --> 00:35:19.679
Uh, and if it hadn't worked, I probably would have been like forgotten in wrestling.
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:24.800
Uh, you know, but it was one of those things when he came to me and he gave me the idea, but he didn't tell me this or that.
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:37.920
He gave me both, you know, you could either throw it down, we'll split off and become extreme championship wrestling, or if you want to stay with, we'll we'll just integrate into the NWA and try to help get NWA back over.
00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:41.920
I think Paul, in hindsight, pretty much knew where I would go with it.
00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:51.840
Uh, but the the truth of the matter is that whole week leading up to that show, to the tournament, uh by the hour I'm gonna do it.
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:54.079
And then next hour, no, I'm not gonna do it.
00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:54.719
I can't do it.
00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:55.679
I'm gonna do it.
00:35:55.840 --> 00:35:56.960
Nah, I better not.
00:35:57.119 --> 00:35:59.760
Uh, I might get heat, I might kill my career.
00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:01.119
No, it might build the career.
00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:02.800
I was all over the place on this day.
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:04.880
I was up and down, up and down, up and down.
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:09.760
And Wednesday, if you remember, Mike Tanay used to have that uh syndicated radio program.
00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:14.960
He called me up the next day, it was on Wednesday nights, and he said, You haven't listened to my show yesterday?
00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:15.920
I said, No, why?
00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:18.159
He said, I had Dennis Coluza on.
00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:20.239
I uh he said some interesting things.
00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:21.119
I said, like what?
00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:25.440
He went, uh why don't you go back and listen to the archive?
00:36:25.599 --> 00:36:26.719
And he didn't want to tell me.
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:30.079
So I went back and pulled up the archive and listening to it.
00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:36.239
Now, I my knowledge of Dennis Calouza at this point is I met him one time, and it was never a formal meeting.
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:39.519
I was with Eddie Gilbert, and Eddie Gilbert he owed Eddie some money.
00:36:39.679 --> 00:36:48.079
So we stopped at the Radisson uh Philadelphia Airport, walked into the lobby, Eddie introduced me.
00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:49.920
We shook, said hello, shook hands.
00:36:50.079 --> 00:36:50.480
That was it.
00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:53.440
That was the only contact, the only time I'd ever laid eyes on this guy.
00:36:53.599 --> 00:37:03.920
And he's on Mike Tanay's Radio National Program saying, if you're thinking about booking Shane Douglas, I wouldn't because he'll just take your money and then no-show you.
00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:08.079
Now, we were making at this point about 75% of our money on the indies.
00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:11.119
ECW hadn't caught gone full-time yet.
00:37:11.360 --> 00:37:16.639
And I could not figure out for the life of me why he would say that.
00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:19.679
Uh, because that was taking food out of my family's mouth.
00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:25.679
And then once we like win his belt and like resurrect his company that he that he you know wanted back.
00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:30.159
So I I I just for the likely could not understand why he would be that dumb.
00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:33.599
And we get to the building that night, and I still don't commit my mind.
00:37:33.679 --> 00:37:38.400
I may when there's that the reason the promo goes as long as it does, for a few reasons.
00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:43.119
First of all, I went blank, and I'll get into that in a second, but I couldn't make my mind up.
00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:46.320
I couldn't like I would there's a lot of pressure on that.
00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:51.360
In hindsight, we look at it and say it worked, I've got ECW over and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:53.840
But there was no guarantee at that time beforehand.
00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:59.519
This could have very easily put a bullet in my career and possibly derailed ECW.
00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:01.440
So a lot of pressure on it.
00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:04.719
And I couldn't go talk to anybody about it and say, hey, what would you do?
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:06.960
You know, it was like we had to keep it under wraps.
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:08.239
And so I get to the building.
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:15.039
Typically, I'm gonna get to the arena about one o'clock in the afternoon, you know, let's go about my area and then just float around and do our thing.
00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:21.280
And uh as soon as I walked into the building, Corruzzo comes right up like Velcro to me.
00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:23.840
Keeps shoving this contract in my face.
00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:27.440
Well, obviously, I can't sign a contract if I'm gonna throw the belt down.
00:38:27.519 --> 00:38:32.800
And again, I hadn't made my mind up yet, but if I'm gonna throw the belt down, I can't sign a contract.
00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:38.559
So I said, okay, well, I'll get this to my attorney, I'll get it signed back to you after my attorney looks at it.
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:42.239
20 minutes later, Asian everything needed that contract signed.
00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:44.880
And but he kept doing this like all afternoon.
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:49.119
I finally went to Paul and I said, I've gone to take a number two, right?
00:38:49.199 --> 00:38:55.199
I'm up in the toilet stall, and I come out of the toilet and open it, and he's waiting there and shoves the contract in my face.
00:38:55.280 --> 00:38:57.280
I grabbed him by his collar, pulled him over to Paul.
00:38:57.440 --> 00:39:00.880
I said, get this motherfucker away from me, or I'm gonna blow it.
00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:05.039
And how he didn't catch on that, you know, I don't know.
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:10.400
Uh, but he it just this predominant like him just being a pain in the ass that day.
00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:17.760
I mean, and I said to him at one point, I mean it sincerely, I wouldn't sign a contract from Jesus Christ until my lawyer approved it.
00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.199
And uh so we get into the bulk of the show.
00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:25.360
The building was stifling hot that night, super hot, August of 94.
00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:29.840
Uh, Philadelphia's just like a all the swamp there's humid as hell.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:33.440
And the Schuylkill River can smell pretty ripe at that time of year.
00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:37.360
Um, I'd wrestled like an 18-20-minute match with Taz.
00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:49.440
Uh, next was with uh uh D Malenko, like another 15-20, and then a 37-minute match at the end of the night after working twice in this oven with Tuco.
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:54.000
Give Scorp all the credit for that match because I was blown sky high.
00:39:54.159 --> 00:40:00.639
Uh I was just I was never good in the heat to begin with, but this was like a real test of willingly an Iron Man thing, you know.
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:07.360
And uh Scorp delivered as we knew he would, and uh comes time for the promo.
00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:13.519
The only thing I had thought of previous, like before the match, like well, if I do throw it down, what am I gonna say?
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:23.920
And I decided that I would mention the NWA wrestlers that I admired and respected, and then you know, sort of meander through that, and that would kill the time of the promo.
00:40:24.159 --> 00:40:32.320
The problem was I was so blown up that, and in that heat, I said one or two names, and my mind went completely blank.
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:33.360
Gone.
00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:36.079
I couldn't have told you my middle name at that point.
00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:41.119
And I think whenever it gives me the credit for this great promo, it's not a promo, it's a conversation.
00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:43.199
You know, you've never seen anything like that.
00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:48.000
And I think even since you haven't seen anything like that, where it's actually like a talking back and forth with the audience.
00:40:48.159 --> 00:40:53.280
Because as soon as I say the second name and I'm trying to think of the third name, somebody throws a name in.
00:40:53.440 --> 00:40:55.760
And I say, and then somebody else throws another name in.
00:40:55.920 --> 00:41:02.159
And so there's this back and forth between me and the audience that I think came across so real.
00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:06.639
It wasn't all all you ever seen prior was, I'm showing up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:09.360
You know, we'd look into the camera lens and have the promo.
00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:12.000
This was something completely different from that.
00:41:12.159 --> 00:41:26.800
And I think because of what it meant later, like it would have a game in time, you know, this ECW, like going to this trajectory with extreme championship wrestling and burying MWA once and for all, I think it was just so off the wall enough that the fans really latched on to it.
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:36.960
I think that was the night that ECW became what it would become, this legendary company that, you know, if you listen today to the fans, and I'll just a little sidebar here.
00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:39.119
Every night was a five-star night.
00:41:39.360 --> 00:41:41.920
Every match was a 10-star match.
00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:44.559
Um, there were a lot of bad nights uh there.
00:41:44.719 --> 00:41:47.199
But more so than not, we would deliver the goods.
00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:50.239
Uh, you never saw anybody lazy in ECW.
00:41:50.639 --> 00:41:53.519
You never heard somebody, hey, the building's only two-thirds full.
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:55.039
Let's just take it easy tonight.
00:41:55.199 --> 00:41:57.199
Uh, there was never any of that in ECW.
00:41:57.280 --> 00:42:03.280
That's what I so respected and admired that locker room for, was everybody went out there and busted their humps.
00:42:03.440 --> 00:42:08.079
Francine was less than six months in the business and hardly working full-time.
00:42:08.159 --> 00:42:12.480
She probably had a handful of matches at that point, or you know, been on a couple shows.
00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:21.280
Uh, if you would have put me at that stage of my career with the world heavyweight champion, I would have been so terrified that I would fuck it up and screw it up somehow.
00:42:21.519 --> 00:42:23.920
Uh, she took to it like a fish to water.
00:42:24.079 --> 00:42:25.360
Uh, she was green.
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:36.960
You know, early on, we like we had we had this language that we would talk, and like every night in the car coming from wherever the building was back to the hotel, I would you know explain to her what she did right tonight, what she did wrong.
00:42:37.199 --> 00:42:41.199
And her follow-up questions were always right on target.
00:42:41.360 --> 00:42:44.639
Like she I wouldn't tell her something, or go, well, what about that first match?
00:42:44.719 --> 00:42:45.440
That was great.
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:48.320
Uh, it was always relative to what we were talking about.
00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:52.079
She picked it up so fast, about two, two and a half months in.
00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:57.199
Remember, I would hold the ropes open, she'd give me the kiss, I would do the chest beat, she would get the center lane.
00:42:57.519 --> 00:43:01.119
As she would do that, she would break camera left, stage right.
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:08.800
I would come in, do the same thing, go to the opposite side, and then we'd meet back up in the middle of the ring and do the three fingers.
00:43:09.039 --> 00:43:18.559
On this particular night, she does the kiss, does the walk, the whole thing, and she goes to her side, stage left, uh, stage right, camera left.
00:43:18.800 --> 00:43:22.559
I come in, I go to mine, uh, stage left, camera right.
00:43:22.960 --> 00:43:29.599
And instead of staying in that back corner, she slides down to the corner in the front, opposite from me.
00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:31.119
And I mean, what's she doing?
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:35.599
And she she gets to that far turnbuckle and she looks, it gives me this real sultry look.
00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:41.199
And she drops down to all fours, and she likes a panther, came crawling across the ring.
00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:48.480
I was in her saw history of the world part one, where the eunuch that the the uh lung cloth goes up a little bit.
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:51.360
Uh that was where I love this.
00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:54.800
Yes, the Mel Brooks reference in our in our interview.
00:43:55.039 --> 00:43:55.519
Awesome.
00:43:55.679 --> 00:43:56.079
Thank you.
00:43:56.960 --> 00:43:57.440
Thank you.
00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:02.559
It's great stuff, but she When she came up my leg, she kissed the belt.
00:44:03.119 --> 00:44:03.679
She gets it.
00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:04.719
You know, she understands it.
00:44:04.800 --> 00:44:09.119
And we from that point forward, you know, she would take a little bit more autonomy with the character.
00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:11.360
And you know, she screws up here or there.
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:13.920
I would mention it to her, like sort of how Ricky did with me.
00:44:14.079 --> 00:44:16.559
But Franny took it to like a like a fish to water.
00:44:16.639 --> 00:44:21.599
She went right to it, understood it, made it her own, and became the queen of extreme.
00:44:21.840 --> 00:44:25.440
Uh yeah, and for me, that was such a valuable asset to have out there.
00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:26.079
Yeah.
00:44:26.800 --> 00:44:32.000
So uh so ECW, one of your major feuds, Terry Funk.
00:44:32.400 --> 00:44:32.559
Yeah.
00:44:33.599 --> 00:44:34.400
In everything.
00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:41.760
What was it like working with the legend that is that former NWA heavyweight champion Terry Funk?
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:43.679
Yeah, I mean, that's Terry Funk, right?
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:46.960
It's uh not lost on me being a fan that I was.
00:44:47.199 --> 00:44:54.079
Um, but much how I told you how Ricky taught me to be a main inventor, uh, Terry Funk taught me how to be a heel.
00:44:54.239 --> 00:44:58.480
I'd always thought up to that point that being a heel was just opposite of a baby face.
00:44:58.639 --> 00:45:01.199
So the babyface goes left, the heel should go right.
00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:02.559
I wish it were that easy.
00:45:02.639 --> 00:45:04.159
There's a whole lot more to it than that.
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:06.719
But he was so unorthodox in the ring.
00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:10.400
Um, first off, just a little uh I want to put him over for a second.
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:14.719
I'm a little bit older now than he was when he won the ECW belt.
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:15.360
Wow.
00:45:15.599 --> 00:45:19.760
I can't perform anywhere near the levels I used to, and I don't want to.
00:45:19.840 --> 00:45:22.000
Uh you know, my body just can't do that.
00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:28.800
So when I watched Terry Funk at this stage of his career, I've never seen Terry Funk do moonsaults before.
00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:30.719
He suddenly go moonsaults.
00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:33.920
Uh I'm going out there having a-tloor, no less.
00:45:34.159 --> 00:45:35.039
Yes, yes.
00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:46.480
And you know, and Terry, like when he would do that and jump off that top turnbuckle, you know, he had this body that you know, they say if you get sucked into a black hole, you get spaghettified.
00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:48.239
He would spaghettify up there.
00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:50.480
Like he would jump off that rope, and his body would go, whoa.
00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:53.039
You know.
00:45:53.199 --> 00:45:57.840
Uh at the one time me, Brian, Lee, and Tommy are on the fourth fight right there, and he climbed.
00:45:57.920 --> 00:45:58.719
We know he's gonna do a movement.
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:01.199
He didn't call it, but we know what he's gonna do, right?
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:07.519
So as he jumps, he like I said, stretches out, and I just see this long torso coming at us, and we're like trying to position ourselves.
00:46:07.599 --> 00:46:09.519
We end up grabbing him about the waist.
00:46:09.679 --> 00:46:13.119
Well, the momentum took his head, this his head hit the concrete.
00:46:13.199 --> 00:46:15.679
Like if you took a bowling ball from 10 feet and just dropped it.
00:46:15.760 --> 00:46:16.719
That's what it sounded like.
00:46:17.519 --> 00:46:21.119
And like like South Park, I thought, oh my god, we killed Terry.
00:46:23.119 --> 00:46:26.639
And he gets up all for you, you stupid motherfuckers.
00:46:29.920 --> 00:46:35.440
He was awesome to work with because like he did come up at the beginning and say, Okay, saying what do you want to do tonight?
00:46:35.599 --> 00:46:38.960
And then you know how the kids do today, sit and talk for 18 hours and memorize it.
00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:41.840
He's went out and you sort of held on for dear life.
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:49.440
Um, the three-way dance with me and Sabu, uh watching in real time as we're doing that match.
00:46:50.159 --> 00:46:53.360
Uh it I'd never seen a three-way dance at that point.
00:46:53.440 --> 00:46:55.119
I'd never certainly been in one.
00:46:55.519 --> 00:47:00.559
And when you have a great match, it you you hit this point where it's just sort of like auto-drive.
00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:05.039
You don't like you go back to the dressing room, you can't even really remember specifically what you did.
00:47:05.199 --> 00:47:06.559
It just felt right.
00:47:06.800 --> 00:47:08.079
And this did not.
00:47:08.239 --> 00:47:11.920
This felt very herky, jerky, discombobulated.
00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:13.679
It didn't feel like we hit the groove.
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:16.800
And being the only person that went the full hour, I'm blown up.
00:47:16.960 --> 00:47:19.280
You know, again, the arena is stifling hot.
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:20.960
And Sherry Martel is there with me.
00:47:21.039 --> 00:47:24.079
If you watch, I'm not laying like on the apron closest to the hard cam.
00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:28.159
And Sherry's right there with me, and she's looking around and she goes, Oh my god, look.
00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:31.599
So I picked my head up, and the crowd's giving us a standing ovation.
00:47:32.239 --> 00:47:34.480
At that moment, honestly, that's how stupid I am.
00:47:34.559 --> 00:47:38.239
I'm thinking, boy, this is being nice because we went an hour because that match sucked.
00:47:38.400 --> 00:47:40.639
And uh, it just didn't feel right to me.
00:47:40.880 --> 00:47:49.599
And Paul, part of my job with Paul was he would send me the once they got the TV show done for that week, he would send me the raw tape.
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:51.360
Uh no commercials or anything.
00:47:51.519 --> 00:47:55.039
It would just be like blank space and a match, then blank space and a match.
00:47:55.280 --> 00:48:01.760
Because he wanted to ask me, like, okay, I would this is what I want to do next in this angle with this match.
00:48:02.159 --> 00:48:03.199
Will that work?
00:48:03.440 --> 00:48:05.119
And I then explained the psychology to him.
00:48:05.360 --> 00:48:07.599
Paul didn't understand the psychology of actually having a match.
00:48:07.679 --> 00:48:08.559
He'd never worked.
00:48:08.719 --> 00:48:16.960
He he had the the ringside stuff, the gifts of gab on the microphone, but he didn't really understand the nuances of why does this move come before or after that move?
00:48:17.119 --> 00:48:20.480
And so I would watch it and say, Well, you can do that, but if you do, you have to do this first.
00:48:20.639 --> 00:48:25.440
Just like sort of one of those back and forth things, like just filling him in on the uh, you know, on that.
00:48:25.519 --> 00:48:29.119
So I get the tape from that week and I watch that match.
00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:34.320
I I there's like when I listen to a new song of a group I like, I I I can live, I can't like it.
00:48:34.400 --> 00:48:35.519
I I don't love it the first time.
00:48:35.599 --> 00:48:41.199
I have to listen to it over and over, five, six, seven, eight times, and then my ear will either catch it or poo-poo it.
00:48:41.360 --> 00:48:41.679
Same here.
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:42.880
And same thing with this.
00:48:42.960 --> 00:48:50.639
I had to watch it several times, and then you know, initially the first time I watched it with the crowds is being nice because we're you know we're putting time in.
00:48:50.960 --> 00:48:52.960
And uh but then I'm starting to watch it.
00:48:53.039 --> 00:48:54.559
I'm going, okay, there's something interesting here.
00:48:54.639 --> 00:48:58.079
I can't quite make out what it is, but there's something interesting here.
00:48:58.239 --> 00:49:03.280
And then like the third or fourth time, you're going, okay, like we're all me and Sabu are following Terry's lead.
00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:11.119
And where my line picks up like what I'm telling you right now, is if you remember the sleeper hold, Terry's like uh Sabu and the sleeper hold.
00:49:12.079 --> 00:49:15.280
And like they didn't look at me and go, hey, come grab a hold.
00:49:15.440 --> 00:49:17.599
Uh I'm just watching it like a fan.
00:49:17.760 --> 00:49:18.719
It's right here in front of me.
00:49:18.800 --> 00:49:21.199
And they're going, okay, I hit the rope, I hit the rope.
00:49:21.519 --> 00:49:23.360
My thought was clothesline, Terry.
00:49:23.519 --> 00:49:27.360
But as I'm coming off the rope, they both like stooped down.
00:49:27.440 --> 00:49:30.320
So Terry's neck, instead of being here, was now here.
00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:33.280
And I'm getting rid of the clothesline, I'm like, oh, why not the sleeper?
00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:38.400
So I reach in and get the sleeper, and then you get that three, that totem pole of three heads.
00:49:38.639 --> 00:49:44.559
Uh when I watched it, I got goosebumps, and I thought, like, if you'd have told me to do that, I wouldn't have made it look that good.
00:49:45.039 --> 00:49:51.039
Terry had a way of leading a match, not by talking or calling spots, just by doing.
00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:54.320
And then you got a performance as great as Sabu was.
00:49:54.400 --> 00:49:57.519
You know, he pitched his party, but he also thought the match was a sucker.
00:49:57.760 --> 00:50:07.840
And uh, if you remember this one point where Terry Funk's on like all fours like a dog, and he's running just headbutting us, and we just kept getting up and feeding and rule and Sabu take it, and then I'd come and take it again.
00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:15.360
Uh after four or five times of watching, I started thinking to myself, this isn't just a good match, this is a fucking great match.
00:50:15.440 --> 00:50:19.280
This is like a like territory-making type match.
00:50:20.239 --> 00:50:27.679
And uh, you know, Terry was so awesome in working with because again, like he didn't, I can't remember 50, 60 moves in a row.
00:50:27.920 --> 00:50:31.360
Uh, but the kids today don't know how to engage the audience.
00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:32.880
They just regurgitate.
00:50:33.440 --> 00:50:37.440
And for us, there's times when that won't work if the crowd's not buying this or that.
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:39.760
Uh, just you know, you get a chance to tinker with it.
00:50:39.920 --> 00:50:43.280
These kids can't digress from what they've just talked about for eight hours.
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:45.039
And Terry was a master of that.
00:50:45.119 --> 00:50:53.119
If you watch 99% of what Terry did was just add living, and you know, but it ad living in the most perfect way you could in a wrestling match.
00:50:53.440 --> 00:50:55.280
Uh so like learning to be a heel from him.
00:50:55.440 --> 00:50:57.119
The first night I worked with him as a heel.
00:50:57.280 --> 00:51:01.280
We were in a little sh building down in Delaware, not a whole lot of people there.
00:51:01.519 --> 00:51:04.559
And we go to lock up and he grabs me and throws me out.
00:51:04.719 --> 00:51:06.960
So I come back in, he throws me out the other side.
00:51:07.119 --> 00:51:08.559
I come back in, he throws me out.
00:51:08.719 --> 00:51:10.559
He threw me out of that ring like 20 times.
00:51:10.719 --> 00:51:14.719
And I'm thinking, like, we we can't do a match with just throwing each other out of the ring.
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:17.039
And uh pretty much we did that night.
00:51:17.280 --> 00:51:18.559
And I came back and I said, Why?
00:51:18.719 --> 00:51:20.480
He goes, Well, first of all, there's no audience.
00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:22.800
He said, Why take any big bumps or anything?
00:51:22.880 --> 00:51:25.280
And and then he started explaining to me like the reasoning.
00:51:25.360 --> 00:51:29.440
You know, okay, I wouldn't think of that kind of match at the top of my head, but it worked.
00:51:29.760 --> 00:51:37.119
And that was what Terry taught me because that you know, there's a there's a thousand roads that lead to Rome, there's no one that you have to take.
00:51:37.280 --> 00:51:46.559
And so the same thing with a match as a heel, you know, the the hardest part, it's not even a hard part, but the most important part of being a heel, to me anyway, is what Terry Funk learned me.
00:51:46.719 --> 00:51:48.000
You've got to know your opponent.
00:51:48.159 --> 00:51:49.760
What kind of moves does your opponent do?
00:51:49.840 --> 00:51:55.360
If you don't know your, you know, if you're calling uh moon salts for me, probably not gonna be able to get that.
00:51:55.440 --> 00:52:00.719
Uh, if I'm calling a great promo from Sabu, probably wouldn't him be able to do that.
00:52:00.960 --> 00:52:04.960
So uh Terry, that that that's the override thing that I learned from Terry.
00:52:05.039 --> 00:52:06.880
But he was also great to work with.
00:52:07.119 --> 00:52:15.039
And Terry and I had a wavelength on something when we did the uh the Hall of Fame thing with uh Terry Funk the Banquet.
00:52:15.360 --> 00:52:18.000
You know, I'm sitting in my room, I'm still trying to flesh this character off.
00:52:18.079 --> 00:52:20.719
This is still fairly early in the franchise character's existence.
00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:23.039
And Paul wouldn't give me a whole lot after that.
00:52:23.119 --> 00:52:24.719
He's maybe do it on my own.
00:52:24.960 --> 00:52:32.000
And so I'm thinking my Frany, we're getting dressed, she's got her gown on and putting her makeup on, and I'm you know, getting ready to put my tucks on.
00:52:33.199 --> 00:52:37.760
Francis said, the franchise wouldn't go pay honor to somebody else, would he?
00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:39.840
And she went, I don't think so.
00:52:40.239 --> 00:52:43.280
The way you play the character, I don't think you would put anybody else over.
00:52:43.440 --> 00:52:47.679
And when she said it that way, I went, Yeah, the franchise would never put anybody else over.
00:52:47.840 --> 00:52:51.760
He would put himself over and tell you how great he is, but he would never put somebody else over.
00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:53.679
Uh, so I called Terry.
00:52:53.840 --> 00:52:56.960
He answered the phone, Vicky answered the phone, his wife.
00:52:57.199 --> 00:53:01.280
Terry came on the phone and I ran by him, pretty much what I just said to you guys.
00:53:01.760 --> 00:53:06.960
And there was a long pause, and Terry said, Well, goddamn, Shane, there's no way you can be at that banquet.
00:53:07.199 --> 00:53:08.800
So we didn't go.
00:53:09.119 --> 00:53:12.880
The next day at work, everybody is shitting on us.
00:53:13.039 --> 00:53:15.760
I can't believe you disrespected Terry Funk like that.
00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:17.360
And we couldn't smarten them up.
00:53:17.440 --> 00:53:24.000
You know, Paul did not want it to leak out that this was not a real relationship, that this was just an angle or a storyline.
00:53:24.159 --> 00:53:31.679
Uh, and so we would just have to take that stuff, uh, you know, and Terry after like the next night at the end of the show, Terry go through, he he winked at me and we got back to the hotel.
00:53:31.920 --> 00:53:38.960
He goes, uh if you know you if you know you work the boys, you can guarantee you work the marks.
00:53:39.360 --> 00:53:47.280
And uh something along those like words, and uh he was great to work with, easy, uh you know, rarely a tater.
00:53:47.440 --> 00:53:52.000
One the first time I worked a 45-minute Broadway with him, which was preceding the the one-hour match.
00:53:52.159 --> 00:53:53.920
Paul wanted to see if we could get through it.
00:53:54.159 --> 00:54:01.679
We're doing a lot of chaining on the map, and uh you know, Dominic had trained us extensively in chaining, and uh I was pretty good at it.
00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:10.000
And he's pushing me, and I'm pushing him, and I went to reverse a hammer lock, like do a roll through on our hammer lock, and my shoulder dislocated, popped right out.
00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:11.920
Oh he goes, hold on.
00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:16.559
He rolled over on his belly, put his foot in my side, grabbed my wrist, pop, popped it right back in.
00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:17.760
We finished the match.
00:54:17.920 --> 00:54:19.519
I get back to the dressing room.
00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:22.000
I didn't feel any pain out there because the adrenaline's flowing.
00:54:22.079 --> 00:54:25.840
I get to the dressing room and the pain went from like a one to ten, it's like a 25.
00:54:26.320 --> 00:54:31.199
Sherry Martel walked up, she opened up, and she threw something in my mouth and gave me a beer and washed it down.
00:54:31.440 --> 00:54:32.320
I said, What was that?
00:54:32.480 --> 00:54:34.480
She goes, it would help help with the pain.
00:54:34.719 --> 00:54:37.440
And a few minutes later, I'm trying to talk to my and I'm like this one.
00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:39.599
Oh no.
00:54:39.840 --> 00:54:41.760
There's a plastic deal she threw in my mouth.
00:54:42.559 --> 00:54:45.440
So I vomited the rest of it up.
00:54:45.920 --> 00:54:46.480
Just like that.
00:54:46.559 --> 00:54:48.159
That was the ECW locker room.
00:54:48.559 --> 00:54:50.880
Uh everybody pitching in, everybody trying to help out.
00:54:52.239 --> 00:54:55.519
Yes, play doctor, and they're in nurse and everything else in between.
00:54:55.599 --> 00:54:57.440
But uh that's how you get in trouble.
00:54:57.760 --> 00:55:00.079
Yeah, most important, we were there to support each other.
00:55:00.239 --> 00:55:00.480
Yeah.
00:55:00.639 --> 00:55:01.760
And and that worked.
00:55:01.840 --> 00:55:03.360
I'd never seen it before or since.
00:55:03.519 --> 00:55:03.840
Yeah.
00:55:04.159 --> 00:55:09.360
I was gonna ask for about Bam Bam Bigelow, but um, you've been asked that so many times.
00:55:09.440 --> 00:55:12.000
Uh so I'm gonna ask about Chris Candido.
00:55:12.239 --> 00:55:13.440
Um the same thing.
00:55:13.599 --> 00:55:23.920
Uh honestly, it was uh it's rare in your career that you find guys that you can so seamlessly fit together with.
00:55:24.159 --> 00:55:27.360
Uh, you know, we all have our own little quirks and and things you like.
00:55:27.599 --> 00:55:31.199
And if you look at me and Bam Bam and Chris, we're three very different characters.
00:55:31.440 --> 00:55:34.079
Uh Mine's that over the top, Big Mouth.
00:55:34.159 --> 00:55:35.280
Candino can do anything.
00:55:35.360 --> 00:55:37.840
He can do the flying, he can do the chaining, he can do the hardcore style.
00:55:38.559 --> 00:55:40.639
Chris takes like a fish in the water.
00:55:40.880 --> 00:55:46.480
Bammer, though, was uh as a big man, uh, you know, we always have this ongoing debate.
00:55:46.719 --> 00:55:48.000
Best big man in wrestling.
00:55:48.159 --> 00:55:51.119
Wrestling has had a lot of really incredible big men.
00:55:51.360 --> 00:56:02.639
But Bammer, uh I in my mind, and I know I'm obviously jaded on this, uh if you look at how the angle setup that would lead to the pay-per-view in Pittsburgh.
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:05.440
The November to Remember '97.
00:56:05.920 --> 00:56:06.079
Yep.
00:56:06.639 --> 00:56:08.079
Uh November to Remember, yes.
00:56:08.159 --> 00:56:12.960
I I I can't believe that new at Pittsburgh came out and supported me like that.
00:56:13.119 --> 00:56:20.400
And part of the biggest pop in my career, to me, excuse me, it was so obvious what we were doing, right?
00:56:20.719 --> 00:56:25.519
Drops the belt a month later in New York, and then here we come to the pay per view, and Shane Douglas wins it back at home.
00:56:25.679 --> 00:56:28.079
I mean, I thought the fans are gonna see right through that.
00:56:28.480 --> 00:56:30.239
And yet we got that huge pop.
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:38.639
And if you look at Bam Bam working that match, um he knew when he took the belt that he was giving it back a month later.
00:56:38.880 --> 00:56:44.639
Scott could have very easily and would have been well within his rights to say to Paul, hey, I'd like to hold it a little bit longer.
00:56:44.719 --> 00:56:48.239
Let's let's do that that match six six months later, or you know, whatever.
00:56:48.559 --> 00:56:50.639
He certainly was capable of carrying the belt.
00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:55.199
Uh, such a consummate pro in the ring, there was never a complaint.
00:56:55.280 --> 00:56:58.239
He he knew exactly what his role for that was.
00:56:58.480 --> 00:57:02.960
The template we used was Flair uh versus Vader in 90 in Charlotte.
00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:05.039
And you go back and look at that.
00:57:05.199 --> 00:57:10.719
Remember now, this is pay-per-view, so the Billy's about 114 degrees, 13, 12, like in that range, very hot.
00:57:10.800 --> 00:57:13.599
Uh all the light stances before the high-risk cameras.
00:57:13.840 --> 00:57:18.639
For the first 18, 15 minutes or so, I don't do anything to him.
00:57:18.719 --> 00:57:20.880
He's just throwing me around like a ragdoll.
00:57:21.280 --> 00:57:29.119
And uh at one point, about the 15-minute mark, he presses me over his head and throws me, like Spike, to the security out in the entranceway.
00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:35.760
He then walks back, puts his hands on a top rope, and looks right into the hard cam, and he's breathing like this.
00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:39.760
He's got one trickle of sweat.
00:57:40.400 --> 00:57:42.079
Go back and watch this, you'll see what I'm telling you.
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:44.559
He's completely not blown up.
00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:47.920
Meanwhile, I'm blown up, Sky, over there.
00:57:48.159 --> 00:57:54.480
Uh he was amazing in the ring how deftly he could move around, how light on his feet he was.
00:57:54.719 --> 00:58:00.239
But when he looked like he was killing you, remember to get in the corner and give those big forearm smashes, looked like he was tatering you.
00:58:00.320 --> 00:58:00.639
Oh, yeah.
00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:02.000
And light as a feather.
00:58:02.079 --> 00:58:06.159
And then the the bell of the belly at the end through the table.
00:58:06.320 --> 00:58:11.599
Uh, you know, Bamber's he had slimmed down to like 385 for that match.
00:58:12.079 --> 00:58:13.039
Slim at 380.
00:58:13.280 --> 00:58:13.360
Yeah.
00:58:14.079 --> 00:58:14.880
Slimmed way down.
00:58:15.360 --> 00:58:18.960
I think his ECW time was like probably his best time in his whole career.
00:58:19.199 --> 00:58:21.199
Oh, and you could tell he's having fun.
00:58:21.360 --> 00:58:21.679
Yeah.
00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:27.360
And that's uh, you know, when he when those guys passed away, like you said you asked uh Candito.
00:58:27.840 --> 00:58:30.800
Candito had this thing, it was it was nerve-wracking.
00:58:30.960 --> 00:58:32.719
Uh, I love pro wrestling, obviously.
00:58:32.800 --> 00:58:33.760
You guys love pro wrestling.
00:58:34.079 --> 00:58:37.039
Chris would talk about pro wrestling 29 hours a day.
00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:38.400
I have other interests.
00:58:38.480 --> 00:58:41.119
I like politics, I like music, I like different things.
00:58:41.280 --> 00:58:43.039
Let's talk about wrestling, let's talk about some music.
00:58:43.199 --> 00:58:46.719
Candito is 29 hours a day, pro wrestling, pro wrestling, pro-wrestling.
00:58:47.039 --> 00:58:54.960
And uh I would watch, and I remember this one night we were in Revere, uh, Massachusetts, at the uh Greyhound Park.
00:58:55.599 --> 00:59:02.559
Me, there in this building at the very far end of the hall, there was a like one of those old vaudeville type dressing rooms.
00:59:02.800 --> 00:59:05.760
Pretty big, but you know, the lights around the mirror and stuff.
00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:08.079
And uh Candida's passed out.
00:59:08.239 --> 00:59:10.079
He's laying down against the floor there.
00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:12.559
He's got his gear and boots on, but he's out like a light.
00:59:12.639 --> 00:59:14.800
He's been sleeping for two, three hours at this point.
00:59:15.039 --> 00:59:18.800
I hear ring music and I'm listening, it's Candito's ACBC, right?
00:59:19.199 --> 00:59:20.079
Christian music is playing.
00:59:20.159 --> 00:59:20.639
He went, What?
00:59:20.800 --> 00:59:22.320
He jumped up and he went, What?
00:59:22.480 --> 00:59:23.519
Pull his tights up.
00:59:23.840 --> 00:59:24.960
So I go to follow him, right?
00:59:25.039 --> 00:59:27.039
I'm thinking he's gonna have a shit of a root match tonight.
00:59:27.119 --> 00:59:28.239
He's been dead asleep.
00:59:28.559 --> 00:59:31.519
He went out and put on a fucking clinic.
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:36.719
And I'm like, I honestly, I had to always work it, I had to think about it, like sometimes overthink it.
00:59:36.800 --> 00:59:40.639
Yeah, uh, but I couldn't just get up right now and walk out there and have a five-star match.
00:59:40.719 --> 00:59:42.480
I had to really make it make sense in my head.
00:59:42.639 --> 00:59:45.599
Candido was like smooth as butter.
00:59:45.679 --> 00:59:47.760
I mean, he would just walk out there, boom, just do it.
00:59:47.920 --> 00:59:52.079
And if you watch closely, Candito had this thing he would call uh ha ha.
00:59:52.400 --> 00:59:59.920
Uh meaning that he would entertain himself in the ring, and he would do these these stupid little things out there that were like made him chuckle.
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:02.719
And most of the time the crowd didn't get it.
01:00:03.199 --> 01:00:06.079
One time he did a thing where he had Lance storm chasing him.
01:00:06.159 --> 01:00:07.519
He asked me if he'd use Francine.
01:00:07.679 --> 01:00:12.639
This was Indiana, Pennsylvania, and he wanted to use Franny because uh Tammy wasn't there that night.
01:00:12.800 --> 01:00:13.519
I said, sure.
01:00:13.679 --> 01:00:19.920
Now Franny knew I did not like her doing that ha ha stuff because that could work for Chris, but we were going for heat.
01:00:20.159 --> 01:00:27.760
And uh so he had Lance chase him around the ring, and as he runs by Francine, as they run by Francine, she rolls into the ring.
01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:31.840
So now they've split that, they go past her, she rolls into the ring, they split the post.
01:00:32.079 --> 01:00:34.559
Candida rolls in, he looks down, he's waiting.
01:00:34.639 --> 01:00:36.000
Here comes Lance following behind him.
01:00:36.079 --> 01:00:41.119
He turns around to run, runs into 98-pound Francine.
01:00:41.599 --> 01:00:43.840
She doesn't budge, he takes the bump.
01:00:44.079 --> 01:00:45.679
My head about exploded.
01:00:45.920 --> 01:00:49.119
I was like, but that was Candido.
01:00:49.199 --> 01:00:53.039
He was always, always up to something that was like an old gremlin.
01:00:53.280 --> 01:00:54.719
And the three, and I'll finish with this.
01:00:54.800 --> 01:00:56.880
The three of us got along so well.
01:00:57.039 --> 01:00:58.960
We got there was a shorthand between us.
01:00:59.039 --> 01:01:00.880
We'd have to go, hey, what are you doing next?
01:01:01.119 --> 01:01:06.000
You'd see Bammer do turn a certain way or do a certain move, and you knew what was coming next.
01:01:06.239 --> 01:01:09.360
The same thing with my body language and Candido's body language.
01:01:09.440 --> 01:01:14.800
Uh, we had this sort of like shorthand that we just instinctively knew between each other.
01:01:14.960 --> 01:01:20.480
I have never had that with anybody else I ever worked with, even Steamboat, uh, like I had it with those guys.
01:01:20.559 --> 01:01:22.559
Uh that's why I think made the triple threat.
01:01:22.639 --> 01:01:25.039
That that incarnate that was the third incarnation.
01:01:25.119 --> 01:01:32.239
Uh, we kept getting like Brian Lee, Candy was gone, uh Candido and uh I mean uh Benoit and uh Malanko in out.
01:01:32.639 --> 01:01:37.360
We finally settled down, it's just sort of like the pieces just fell where they needed to be.
01:01:37.519 --> 01:01:41.440
And the fact that we all got along so great makes traveling on the road a lot easier.
01:01:41.599 --> 01:01:47.599
You know, we could talk about the matches, not be you know, anal about it or whatever, just sort of like bullshitting in the car.
01:01:47.760 --> 01:01:54.559
Uh but Candito, both of those guys, I was just talking to some friends last week, and I said, boy, is the business miss those guys.
01:01:54.800 --> 01:01:58.559
Uh, you know, we talk about the kids that just went on spot monkey and stuff.
01:01:58.719 --> 01:02:01.039
Um, it's astounding athletic-wise.
01:02:01.199 --> 01:02:05.360
But my God, could if Candido hadn't died, I guarantee he'd still be working.
01:02:05.440 --> 01:02:07.119
He'd be like 52 years old right now.
01:02:07.199 --> 01:02:09.840
Well, you know he'd be still in that ring and teaching these kids.
01:02:09.920 --> 01:02:12.480
And in my humble opinion, that's desperately what they need.
01:02:12.639 --> 01:02:21.199
They need to be in a ring with a guy that's got 15, 20 years on, that's a master of what we do, to teach them those nuanceful things, and they're just not learning it anymore.
01:02:21.440 --> 01:02:26.239
So uh the world of wrestling greatly misses Bam Bad Bigelow and Chris Candido.
01:02:26.320 --> 01:02:27.199
One of the weather.
01:02:27.599 --> 01:02:34.960
One of the biggest things I wanted to ask about Chris Candido real quick is uh is when he went to the ring, he had that strut, you know, and he did the thing.
01:02:35.039 --> 01:02:41.840
But when he went up on the on the apron, he did that thing with his perfectly timed to black and blood.
01:02:42.320 --> 01:02:43.440
Where is that from?
01:02:43.599 --> 01:02:49.280
And what is uh I mean, I've never seen anybody else do it, and you usually see somebody copying it years later.
01:02:49.440 --> 01:02:51.440
Nobody has ever copied what he's done.
01:02:51.679 --> 01:02:58.800
Yeah, like it could it would look so good if someone else came out and just did the whole he did it so smoothly.
01:02:58.880 --> 01:03:02.559
I mean well I'm gonna I'm gonna burst your balloon here.
01:03:02.639 --> 01:03:05.440
Yeah uh he's mimicking Michael Hayes.
01:03:05.599 --> 01:03:06.400
That was Michael Hayes.
01:03:06.639 --> 01:03:08.239
Oh yeah, Michael Hayes would do that.
01:03:10.079 --> 01:03:12.480
Yes, now I don't now I didn't see that.
01:03:12.800 --> 01:03:15.599
Chris was such a a student of the game.
01:03:15.679 --> 01:03:17.280
Yeah, like I told him 29 hours a day.
01:03:17.440 --> 01:03:20.719
I'm not exaggerating, he loved to talk about wrestling, loved wrestling.
01:03:20.880 --> 01:03:28.320
Um so he would go and do remember he he had a pair of the uh striped uh uh tights that looked like Terry Funk.
01:03:28.480 --> 01:03:29.039
Yep, yep.
01:03:29.360 --> 01:03:37.440
Uh when they he had that match with Funk and they were doing the uh the like barn yard brawl or something like that, and he took the backdrop into the water trough.
01:03:37.760 --> 01:03:38.400
Yeah, I remember that.
01:03:38.719 --> 01:03:41.280
Yeah, Chris was like a pig in ship working with Terry like that.
01:03:42.719 --> 01:03:46.400
You could not have made him happier than at the moment he's doing that.
01:03:46.480 --> 01:03:49.119
And how I know that is you see the bumps he's taking and things.
01:03:49.360 --> 01:03:58.159
Uh that's how Chris entertained himself, but my God, you know, him him out there half-assing it is most of us, you know, five-starring it.
01:03:58.400 --> 01:04:01.760
Um he just took to like he had grown up in it.
01:04:01.840 --> 01:04:07.440
His uncle wrestled, uh Sandra White, and somehow he just got smitten by it.
01:04:07.840 --> 01:04:09.679
That's the name, and I'll finish with this.
01:04:09.760 --> 01:04:11.519
Uh the the no gimmicks needed.
01:04:11.679 --> 01:04:12.719
I gave that to him.
01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:20.639
Taz and I were driving K Fe, but or non-K Fe, but we were driving up to West uh West Middletown, New York, I think it was called.
01:04:20.719 --> 01:04:21.119
Yep.
01:04:21.280 --> 01:04:24.480
And we were talking about Candido and this ha-ha stuff that he was doing.
01:04:24.639 --> 01:04:26.320
I said, Chris, go for the heat.
01:04:26.400 --> 01:04:27.039
You're a heel.
01:04:27.119 --> 01:04:28.719
Go, don't make the audience laugh.
01:04:28.960 --> 01:04:29.920
Piss him off.
01:04:30.159 --> 01:04:35.599
And I we kicking it back and forth, I said, we had to come up with a gimmick for him, so I came up with that no gimmicks needed.
01:04:35.679 --> 01:04:41.119
And when I explained it to him what the gimmick was, I said, You don't do any gimmicks, you're you're a straightforward heel.
01:04:41.360 --> 01:04:43.440
And he still would go out and do his haha.
01:04:43.840 --> 01:04:51.360
Uh, you know, in my head, the only way I can do this and not constantly be depressed is uh I have Chris and Bam Bam on tour.
01:04:51.440 --> 01:04:54.079
They're in Germany right now, they're going to Japan right after that.
01:04:54.239 --> 01:04:55.599
They're out there working someplace.
01:04:55.679 --> 01:05:01.280
But I can tell you one thing, with those two guys upstairs, uh God's getting a hell of a wrestling match every day and night.
01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:02.880
Those guys are masks of what we did.
01:05:03.119 --> 01:05:04.000
Really, really are.
01:05:04.079 --> 01:05:04.719
And miss them.
01:05:05.280 --> 01:05:06.880
The business misses them greatly.
01:05:07.599 --> 01:05:13.920
So winding down a bit, because we know you you you're a busy, busy man, and we appreciate you taking the time to talk to you.
01:05:14.159 --> 01:05:14.639
Thank you guys.
01:05:14.880 --> 01:05:20.880
Uh so it's a two-part uh so the first question is anything you want to promote that you have coming up?
01:05:21.199 --> 01:05:24.880
Uh no, just in general, I obviously I'm wrapping my career up.
01:05:24.960 --> 01:05:29.119
Uh a little secret, my manager has this idea that he keeps on saying 2028.
01:05:29.280 --> 01:05:31.440
And I said, hey, dude, you're pretty ambitious.
01:05:31.519 --> 01:05:34.079
Like considering I'm the one out there taking the bumps.
01:05:34.239 --> 01:05:39.199
Uh hey, it's easy to make that decision for other people when it's your ass on the line.
01:05:39.519 --> 01:05:42.960
You know, I I'm I'm a much smarter worker in the ring today than I've ever been.
01:05:43.039 --> 01:05:48.079
Uh I try to limit, you know, you go to the ring today, I'm not taking any bumps, so I'm gonna be very careful.
01:05:48.159 --> 01:05:50.800
And then you get in there and sort of autopilot takes over.
01:05:50.960 --> 01:05:57.599
Uh the difference now is like I'll I'll be like I don't have a match this weekend, but when I do, I'll be sore to like Wednesday or Thursday.
01:05:57.760 --> 01:05:59.599
Just little aches and pains that pop up out of nowhere.
01:06:00.880 --> 01:06:02.480
I'm always going to love wrestling.
01:06:02.559 --> 01:06:05.920
And so the problem for me is like trying to figure out that walking away.
01:06:06.000 --> 01:06:09.119
But where we're blessed, Ron Simmons pointed this out to me a couple years ago.
01:06:09.199 --> 01:06:12.400
We were driving to an uh a uh an appearance.
01:06:12.639 --> 01:06:21.280
And you know, back in the UWF when we both broke in together, uh we quickly realized his mother was my mother and my mother, they were the exact same person.
01:06:21.599 --> 01:06:25.360
Loved you, fed you, whipped your ass if you got out of line.
01:06:25.440 --> 01:06:28.559
Uh, and he said he knew my mother had died a couple like a year and a half earlier.
01:06:28.719 --> 01:06:32.639
And he said, uh, if your mother were still here, would she understand what we're doing today?
01:06:32.880 --> 01:06:33.920
I said, What do you mean?
01:06:34.079 --> 01:06:38.079
He said that like people are gonna pay to get in a city, they're gonna pay to come get a picture and an autograph.
01:06:38.159 --> 01:06:41.760
I started laughing, I said, No, my mother would say, What the hell do they want your autograph for?
01:06:42.000 --> 01:06:46.000
And we sort of laughed it off, but that was really like the approach to the business.
01:06:46.159 --> 01:06:48.719
Like we you came in and you knew you didn't know it all.
01:06:49.679 --> 01:06:52.719
You probably didn't know any of it at that level.
01:06:52.960 --> 01:06:58.320
And so it was always incumbent on us, you know, Bill Watts' rule that you can't leave till the main event's over.
01:06:58.559 --> 01:07:03.360
Most of the guys that that rule meant stand at the back door and as soon as you hear the bell go, run to your car.
01:07:03.599 --> 01:07:04.960
I always loved watching it.
01:07:05.039 --> 01:07:11.760
You know, I don't know if I was being a brown nose or you know, that I but I, you know, main events gonna be the main event match, a caliber match.
01:07:11.840 --> 01:07:12.880
I want to watch it.
01:07:13.039 --> 01:07:17.679
And so uh uh the only thing I would promote is like all my ACW stuff.
01:07:17.760 --> 01:07:19.840
This part, you know, my podcast that we do there.
01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:22.480
I've been doing an interview uh show.
01:07:22.880 --> 01:07:27.519
What I love about it, uh guys, is that uh the first guy I interviewed was Robert Gibson.
01:07:27.679 --> 01:07:40.639
I've known Robert for the better part of almost 40 years, and every it's not just Robert, every single time I do one of these interviews, I learn something about the person I've known for decades that I never knew before.
01:07:40.719 --> 01:07:42.480
Like Robert Gibson's mother was deaf.
01:07:42.639 --> 01:07:44.320
He speaks sign language.
01:07:45.199 --> 01:07:48.000
Never heard that, never heard anybody say it, never saw him do it.
01:07:48.079 --> 01:07:54.000
And my mother spoke a sign language because she worked at uh BCRC was a place for uh you know handicapped kids and stuff to work.
01:07:54.239 --> 01:07:56.880
Um, and so she had to learn a sign language.
01:07:56.960 --> 01:07:58.000
Uh that blew me away.
01:07:58.079 --> 01:08:00.159
And every one of these interviews that I do, I do learn something different.
01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:01.760
I'm sure the fans would love to hear those.
01:08:01.920 --> 01:08:07.119
Uh the all those can be found through the uh ACW portal, uh Appalachian Championship Wrestling.
01:08:07.280 --> 01:08:08.800
Uh, we're having a good time doing it.
01:08:08.960 --> 01:08:15.119
The the nice thing for the paper, for the podcast, is that we uh it's just sort of open book.
01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:21.520
Right now, the fans have been sending in questions that I've thought we'll do it for the first two or three months, and then those questions will die off.
01:08:21.600 --> 01:08:26.239
Because I'd asked the fans, please don't ask me if I don't like flair or if that's legit or what the heat was song like.
01:08:26.319 --> 01:08:28.800
I've I've answered those questions a gazillion times.
01:08:28.960 --> 01:08:29.119
Right.
01:08:29.439 --> 01:08:32.239
I'd asked them to like give me some really made me think.
01:08:32.560 --> 01:08:34.800
And it responded.
01:08:35.119 --> 01:08:43.199
The other night a guy we were uh doing uh one uh a guy from Melbourne, uh uh Australia asked me a question about public school knowing that I'd been a teacher.
01:08:43.520 --> 01:08:50.479
He doesn't say it, but I it I believe that based on the way he worded the questions, uh, that he's probably an educator himself.
01:08:50.800 --> 01:08:55.680
And so I get a chance to ask him back, hey, from Melbourne, you know, I'm curious, are you an educator?
01:08:55.840 --> 01:08:57.039
Send in and let me know.
01:08:57.199 --> 01:09:00.159
Uh so it's a communication going on between us.
01:09:00.319 --> 01:09:11.600
And I love that the fact that somebody from Melbourne, Australia, is following Shane Douglas at this stage of his career and writing in a three-part question that took about half an hour to answer.
01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:16.800
Uh and then I'm also getting questions that I've like I'm not quite sure on.
01:09:16.960 --> 01:09:19.439
And so I'll say, hey, you know, I'm not really sure about that.
01:09:19.520 --> 01:09:25.520
Like for instance, yesterday somebody asked me about the uh uh the Canadian uh death loop tour.
01:09:25.840 --> 01:09:28.079
I'd never heard that word, that phrase before.
01:09:28.239 --> 01:09:30.399
I don't know if they're just like conflating something else.
01:09:30.560 --> 01:09:40.479
So I tried to answer it based on I thought the way it was written that it might be talking about at the time that me and Justin and Tammy and uh Chris had to drive from like Montreal all the way over to Sault Ste.
01:09:40.640 --> 01:09:43.279
Marie, and we went through like towns and stuff with no human beings.
01:09:43.359 --> 01:09:44.479
We didn't see a single person.
01:09:44.640 --> 01:09:45.840
Uh just weird things like that.
01:09:45.920 --> 01:09:48.079
I thought that's what he was talking about, but I'm gonna go back and check.
01:09:48.239 --> 01:09:51.760
And if it's not, I'm gonna then you know come back and follow up and answer it back for them.
01:09:51.840 --> 01:09:52.960
They're making me think.
01:09:53.119 --> 01:10:13.920
And uh at this stage of my career, you know, when like cherishants and CTE start to settle in on most of the guys, uh, I'm amazed that at this stage, and at this age, uh after the career that I've had, that people still want to interview for podcasts, that fans are still sending in incredible questions, but we're getting ready to then start taking, we're gonna like dabble around with the podcast.
01:10:14.079 --> 01:10:17.119
Uh you know, I'd like to start doing some music reviews.
01:10:17.199 --> 01:10:20.640
Uh my manager, uh, he hates to be on camera, but I want to get him on camera.
01:10:20.800 --> 01:10:22.880
He's very well versed on 90s music.
01:10:23.039 --> 01:10:28.079
I was big on 70s and 80s music, and so gives us a wide range to talk about things.
01:10:28.239 --> 01:10:29.680
Uh, you know, maybe one day do it.
01:10:29.840 --> 01:10:30.720
Like I said, I love to cook.
01:10:30.800 --> 01:10:33.199
Most people wouldn't realize I'm a pretty darn good cook.
01:10:33.359 --> 01:10:36.399
Uh and Freddie's to do some of her recipes and things.
01:10:36.560 --> 01:10:42.000
So it's like a hodgepodge and just, you know, basically let the fans dictate what do you want this channel to be.
01:10:42.479 --> 01:10:53.439
And uh, but the fact that anybody's tuning in and you know pushing me to make me think at this stage of my career is again, if you had told that 13-year-old kid that I'd laughed at you, like, hey, what are you smoking?
01:10:53.600 --> 01:10:57.359
Because uh I don't ever see me being a world champion, let alone five times.
01:10:57.520 --> 01:11:01.439
I don't ever see me doing a podcast that fans around the world are gonna want to tune into.
01:11:01.840 --> 01:11:07.199
Uh honestly, it's been a blessed career, and I'm so blessed to have had it, and uh really enjoyed it.
01:11:07.520 --> 01:11:14.800
We uh we talked, you know, my peers and I and I asked them, like any regrets.
01:11:15.279 --> 01:11:21.840
You can always set and guess stuff, but by and large, most everybody I've asked that question to is like, nah, man, we're living our dream.
01:11:22.319 --> 01:11:26.079
Uh you know, to to be out of that road, you it's almost like you're gonna pinch or something.
01:11:26.159 --> 01:11:27.199
Like, wait a second.
01:11:27.680 --> 01:11:29.359
I I'm out here running the roads.
01:11:29.439 --> 01:11:37.680
I'm working with Terry Funk, I'm working with Black Bart, I'm working with all these legendary people, and it's uh it's not lost on me.
01:11:38.079 --> 01:11:44.560
I can still remember being that kid and thinking to myself, you'd have told me a hundredth of what I've accomplished, I'd have laughed at you.
01:11:44.640 --> 01:11:45.600
And yet here we sit.
01:11:45.680 --> 01:11:48.640
So it's been you know uh for for me a labor of love.
01:11:48.720 --> 01:11:54.319
I mean, who was it, Sammy Morse, I think, that said, if you love your work, if you love your job, you never go to work a day in your life.
01:11:54.479 --> 01:11:55.920
Well, I've never considered this work.
01:11:56.159 --> 01:11:58.479
WWF at six months, that was work.
01:11:58.640 --> 01:11:59.920
You have to just tolerate it.
01:12:00.159 --> 01:12:05.760
But being around wrestling fans and being able to be in this industry is I still have to pinch myself at times.
01:12:05.840 --> 01:12:08.720
It's pretty damn cool, and I'm so blessed to have had it.
01:12:09.520 --> 01:12:20.000
If you've recently made the switch to an electric vehicle, or you're just tired of waiting around at slow public charging stations, it's time to call Direct Electrical Services.
01:12:20.159 --> 01:12:29.279
They are Connecticut's go-to experts for professional level two EV charged installations, including Tesla wall connectors.
01:12:29.520 --> 01:12:43.119
From EV chargers to panel upgrades, backup generators, renovations, network cameras, and general home electrical services, their licensed, insured, and dependable team has you covered.
01:12:43.359 --> 01:12:46.000
Power your drive and let them handle the rest.
01:12:46.159 --> 01:12:49.600
Call or text Direct Electrical Services Today.
01:12:50.079 --> 01:12:54.560
860-913-6232.
01:12:54.720 --> 01:13:00.720
Or visit them online at Directelectrical ServicesLLC.com.
01:13:01.760 --> 01:13:07.520
Once again, 860-913-6232.
01:13:07.920 --> 01:13:10.880
Give them a call or go to their website.
01:13:11.199 --> 01:13:18.239
Alright, uh, so we're gonna finish up with one more segment, and it's called Rapid Fire Smash, seeing it's double axe handle smash.
01:13:18.479 --> 01:13:19.119
And just chance.
01:13:19.760 --> 01:13:20.640
Alright, yeah, awesome.
01:13:20.800 --> 01:13:21.119
Okay.
01:13:21.279 --> 01:13:26.079
Uh so we're just gonna ask you um first question is Bigfoot real?
01:13:27.600 --> 01:13:28.399
Possibly.
01:13:28.640 --> 01:13:28.960
Okay.
01:13:29.279 --> 01:13:29.680
Alright.
01:13:29.840 --> 01:13:32.479
What's the weirdest thing you've ever autographed?
01:13:35.279 --> 01:13:35.520
Oh.
01:13:36.079 --> 01:13:39.600
Uh is your show PG or R?
01:13:39.840 --> 01:13:41.199
Oh, you can just say whatever you want.
01:13:41.600 --> 01:13:43.119
You go however you want, dude.
01:13:43.359 --> 01:13:44.159
Alavia.
01:13:44.560 --> 01:13:49.039
Oh, you know, at first I'm like, no way.
01:13:49.439 --> 01:13:53.199
And uh, you know, she went into her husband, was there.
01:13:53.279 --> 01:13:56.800
She's like, no, and I made sure there were people around, hey, they've asked for this.
01:13:56.880 --> 01:13:59.840
You know, I'm not saying I grew up in a household of women.
01:13:59.920 --> 01:14:00.079
Yeah.
01:14:00.159 --> 01:14:03.039
Uh my brother was 10 years old and gone when I was very young.
01:14:03.199 --> 01:14:14.720
And so I think to this day, that's the reason why when I see people you know opening their mouth and saying, like, like Francine being told, you know, you ought to oil your boobs up, you know, Vince likes that.
01:14:14.880 --> 01:14:16.800
Who would say that in this day and age?
01:14:16.960 --> 01:14:17.119
Yeah.
01:14:17.279 --> 01:14:21.760
Uh, you know, I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm reading all the time about these stupid teachers that have sex with their students.
01:14:21.920 --> 01:14:22.079
Yeah.
01:14:22.560 --> 01:14:24.239
Like, what level of stupid are you?
01:14:24.399 --> 01:14:28.880
Yeah, uh, but yeah, labia, and you know, most beyond that, it's usually memorabilia.
01:14:29.039 --> 01:14:37.039
Uh the cool thing I find is that when they they have like a rare piece of memorabilia, uh, you know, stuff you see once every 10 years if that.
01:14:37.600 --> 01:14:41.680
Uh again, pretty cool that anybody wants my autograph at this point.
01:14:41.760 --> 01:14:43.680
You see all these wrinkles and how fat I'm getting?
01:14:43.840 --> 01:14:46.720
It's uh it's pretty amazing that people still want to follow it.
01:14:46.800 --> 01:14:48.000
It's again blessings.
01:14:48.159 --> 01:14:48.479
Yeah.
01:14:48.640 --> 01:14:50.479
Um, so next question.
01:14:50.640 --> 01:14:57.039
Uh the your best uh road companion, who's your favorite road companion?
01:14:57.119 --> 01:14:58.079
Uh Francine.
01:14:58.239 --> 01:14:58.960
Francine, yeah.
01:14:59.039 --> 01:14:59.199
Okay.
01:14:59.359 --> 01:15:00.479
Yeah, and Chris and Bamber.
01:15:00.560 --> 01:15:01.920
We all traveled together pretty much.
01:15:02.079 --> 01:15:05.199
Uh the thing about Francine was uh follow this through.
01:15:05.359 --> 01:15:08.319
Uh her husband, Joe, what a great guy.
01:15:08.479 --> 01:15:16.640
Uh I don't know many spouses that would say, yeah, go ahead and pretend like you're having sex with this guy and kiss him on camera and this and that and the other thing.
01:15:16.800 --> 01:15:21.520
Uh, but I told him, I looked him in the eye, I said, dude, if you don't want us to do it, I would absolutely respect that.
01:15:21.680 --> 01:15:28.479
And I would never, because of what was done to me, um, I would never cheat on somebody behind their back.
01:15:28.720 --> 01:15:29.680
And I think he knows that.
01:15:29.840 --> 01:15:30.800
He I don't care.
01:15:30.880 --> 01:15:31.279
He's good.
01:15:32.560 --> 01:15:37.840
I'm so happy for Franny because when we were together, Franny's dreams were about having a family.
01:15:38.000 --> 01:15:39.680
All she ever wanted was a family.
01:15:39.920 --> 01:15:43.520
And I you know, I go out there and I stay at her house now, you know, a couple times a year.
01:15:43.680 --> 01:15:48.720
And you know, she got two beautiful kids, boy and a girl, um, great husband.
01:15:49.039 --> 01:15:55.439
And you know, we we did some pretty risque stuff on camera, and I think he realizes that it was all a work.
01:15:55.520 --> 01:15:57.359
It was, you know, like being on a movie set.
01:15:57.520 --> 01:16:07.600
Uh so yeah, Francine, and then right behind would be Christian Bammer, and then right behind that would be uh uh Ron Simmons, Davy Haskins, uh uh King Carl Fergie.
01:16:07.760 --> 01:16:11.359
Uh these were guys that boy, they made the road so much fun, so much fun.
01:16:11.520 --> 01:16:11.840
Okay.
01:16:12.560 --> 01:16:13.359
Quick one.
01:16:13.600 --> 01:16:15.760
Who is the best James Bond?
01:16:17.199 --> 01:16:17.840
Ooh.
01:16:20.479 --> 01:16:22.239
Yeah, they're all so different.
01:16:22.399 --> 01:16:27.119
Uh I'm partial to Daniel Craig, only because, you know, first of all, he's blonde.
01:16:27.199 --> 01:16:30.000
Uh but secondly, like we really broke that mold on it.
01:16:30.159 --> 01:16:36.000
Um, but Sean Connery, uh I mean, my god, how do you you know say anything different?
01:16:36.800 --> 01:16:39.920
Uh but also Roger Moore, I thought was very solid in the type of movie.
01:16:40.079 --> 01:16:45.359
But those were very like three different camps, yeah, differences of of uh of 07, 007.
01:16:45.600 --> 01:16:45.840
Alright.
01:16:46.239 --> 01:16:48.880
So if I had to pick one, I would say Sean Connery.
01:16:49.199 --> 01:16:50.720
Um the uh one one last thing.
01:16:50.880 --> 01:16:52.399
Does pineapple belong in a pizza?
01:16:52.800 --> 01:16:53.920
And there is a right answer.
01:16:54.079 --> 01:16:54.800
Yes or no?
01:16:55.119 --> 01:16:55.680
Absolutely.
01:16:55.920 --> 01:16:58.000
All right, yes, one more for the good guys.
01:16:58.159 --> 01:16:58.880
Yes, all right.
01:16:59.039 --> 01:17:03.199
Also, if you've ever tried uh crab meat on a pizza, give it a try sometime for it.
01:17:03.520 --> 01:17:03.920
I'll try that.
01:17:04.000 --> 01:17:04.560
I'll try that.
01:17:04.800 --> 01:17:06.319
Shane, we'll have to do this again.
01:17:06.399 --> 01:17:12.079
Um I know you can run out of time, so um yeah, I would love to do this again.
01:17:12.399 --> 01:17:13.920
I we have so many more questions.
01:17:14.079 --> 01:17:15.600
We want to discuss so many more things.
01:17:15.760 --> 01:17:16.720
So appreciate it.
01:17:16.800 --> 01:17:17.439
And don't be afraid.
01:17:17.600 --> 01:17:19.119
As you can see, I can get pretty verbose.
01:17:19.199 --> 01:17:20.399
I just like answering completely.
01:17:20.479 --> 01:17:23.199
So don't be like, don't feel bad and say, hey, we've got to get through these.
01:17:23.520 --> 01:17:26.079
I feel I felt bad, so I didn't want to like interrupt you.
01:17:26.319 --> 01:17:26.720
I don't know.
01:17:26.800 --> 01:17:28.399
I you were telling such great stories.
01:17:28.479 --> 01:17:30.159
I didn't yeah, I'm like, no, no, no.
01:17:30.239 --> 01:17:32.000
I want to see this story through to the conclusion.
01:17:32.159 --> 01:17:32.800
So I didn't know.
01:17:34.159 --> 01:17:35.680
I still have you know, I can still remember that.
01:17:35.760 --> 01:17:38.560
I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can remember the stories.
01:17:39.760 --> 01:17:42.239
All right, well, thank you so much, sir.
01:17:42.560 --> 01:17:44.479
It is an honor and a privilege.
01:17:44.800 --> 01:17:45.520
Thank you very much.
01:17:46.159 --> 01:17:46.880
Have a great day, guys.
01:17:46.960 --> 01:17:47.359
Appreciate it.
01:17:47.520 --> 01:17:48.239
Yeah, you thank you.
01:17:48.319 --> 01:17:48.560
Thank you.
01:17:48.800 --> 01:17:49.039
Take care.
01:17:50.159 --> 01:17:50.800
Hey, John.
01:17:51.039 --> 01:17:52.079
Oh, Josh.
01:17:52.640 --> 01:17:58.159
You know, not only is it wedding season, but back to school is right around the corner.
01:17:58.319 --> 01:18:02.640
I think it's really important that everyone have the absolute perfect haircut.
01:18:02.960 --> 01:18:04.399
Do you know a place where they could go?
01:18:04.560 --> 01:18:07.680
Yeah, I go at an old town barbershop in Summers, Connecticut.
01:18:07.840 --> 01:18:11.680
You mean the one located at 48 South Road, Route 83?
01:18:12.000 --> 01:18:12.800
Yes, it is.
01:18:12.880 --> 01:18:15.520
Uh, and haircuts are only$20 to start.
01:18:15.760 --> 01:18:21.760
And their phone number, if you want to call, 860-604-5949.
01:18:22.000 --> 01:18:22.640
And guess what?
01:18:22.800 --> 01:18:24.880
Now they have two barbers on duty.
01:18:25.119 --> 01:18:26.159
No waiting.
01:18:26.479 --> 01:18:29.359
And they also do beard trims.
01:18:29.600 --> 01:18:32.319
Yes, I went down there the other day, have a fresh new look.
01:18:32.399 --> 01:18:35.359
They trimmed my beard, they even used a straight razor.
01:18:35.520 --> 01:18:37.039
I'm all lined up everywhere.
01:18:37.199 --> 01:18:40.640
My neck is all good and all uh nice and fresh.
01:18:40.800 --> 01:18:42.319
Uh I hate hair on my neck.
01:18:42.560 --> 01:18:48.560
I just gotta say, I mean, even though it's a very low bar, this is the best you have ever looked.
01:18:48.800 --> 01:18:50.000
I appreciate that.
01:18:50.239 --> 01:18:51.199
Thank you.
01:18:51.840 --> 01:18:58.159
Go on, tell Jerry at Old Town Barbershop that double axe handle smash sent you.
01:19:02.319 --> 01:19:04.399
Thank you for listening to the show.