Danny Jones Podcast - #11 - Life After the WWE | Lanny Poffo

Episode Date: April 12, 2019

Lanny Poffo, better known by his ring names "Leaping" Lanny Poffo and "The Genius" is a Canadian-American professional wrestler, motivational speaker, poet, and younger brother of "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right. We're here with Lanny Pafo, the genius and WWE legend, brother of macho man, Randy Savage. Thank you for coming on here today, man. I really appreciate it. Keep going with the introduction. I don't know if I could do any better than that. I'm up with some wonderful things to say about me. Those are some wonderful things, man. You've had an extraordinary life, you know, surrounded by icons coming up in the WWW. You've written some books. You've done a lot.

I've had an extraordinary day culminating with this here. Well, thank you for being here. It means a lot. The last time I saw you was when we did the little mini documentary for our channel about you. We went to your apartment. We followed you around. No, you didn't. You went to my condominium.

Oh, your condominium. Yes. There's a difference. I don't rent. I bought. Okay. Yeah. Yes.

You have invested a lot over the years. You've managed your money wisely. I believe in following the advice of great men that have gone before me. For example, Warren Buffett. Yes. And I read The Richest Man in Babylon. And I'm kind of the opposite of Rick Flair. Ooh!

Do you read a lot of finance books, money and finance books? Robert Kiyosaki books and, you know, Ramsey videos and different things. but if you're going to read one book, it would be the richest man in Babylon. The richest man in Babylon. You don't have to read the book. It's on YouTube. Oh, is it really?

It's free. They just read it to you. Sometimes I just download the audio books on iTunes or somewhere. They'll usually have an audio version of it. Well, this is free, and it's YouTube. Oh, wow. Perfect. The richest man in Babylon.

Yeah, because we don't want to spend money on books. Right. That's true. Let the great actor read to us. Yeah. Is it actually the guy, the actual, the author who read the audio? No, because he died many years ago. Oh, okay.

Classen. Yeah. Clayson, Classen, whatever hell his name is. But I've got a big advantage over him. I've got a pulse. Yeah, that's true. That is a big advantage. So how have you been?

What have you been up to you? I heard you went to Japan recently. I had a great time in Japan thanks to New Japan Pro Wrestling. And we went everywhere. They took me around. They had a guy pick me up at the airport, took me everywhere. and I tried not to abuse the good feelings that I was getting. Yeah.

You know, some guys take advantage of those guys. What were you doing there? I was doing the color commentary for some events that they had in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Wow. And that was the first time you've been there? First time in my life. Wow. And in four wrestling events, guess there's one thing I never saw.

Guess what that was? What's that? An empty seat. Wow. No, they were sold out to the rafters, and I can't knock success. It's crazy how big wrestling is in Japan. It's crazy. I remember Hulk telling stories to me about how he used to go there so many times in a month or a week.

I remember, I don't know if it was him or if it was Rick Flair, because I spent a lot of time with both of them telling me how they made like three trips to Tokyo in a week or something, something insane like that. Well, from Dallas to Tokyo Narita Airport is 13 hours. Yeah. It took me three hours to get to Dallas and then, oh, my, it is a long trip, but it's better than covered wagon. If AOC becomes president, I don't know if we can make it. If who?

Ocasio Cortez wants to ban all planes. So I don't know if we ever just go to Japan. It won't be that easy. It's crazy. The stuff is going on with the planes right now, with the Boeing jets being... Can you believe it? Yes, I wish they would ground them until they figure out what the hell's going on. What is that?

What is going on with them? Have they figured it out yet? I don't know what's going on. They're still grounded? Well, they had a Southwest airline 737. Yeah. They just had to make an emergency stop. You know, and I don't like emergency stops.

I want you to go where you're going. Hell no, you don't like emergency stops. That's scary. See, it's men and machines. Men make mistakes and machines break down. So you're flipping a coin every time you're going. But what are you going to do? Not go anywhere?

Right. You know, you've got a choice. You can stay home and then a plane might crash on your head. Right. Or you can go somewhere and you're taking a risk. But statistically, you're doing well. That's true. The most statistically, the drive to the airport is more dangerous than the flight.

How often do you travel nowadays? Are you doing a lot of appearances? I think the first time I'm, to go back to last year, the first time I ever saw you and met you, was at WrestleMania last year in New Orleans. I saw you there at RussellCon. I think that's what it was called. And somebody, you know, I could hear Jake the snake screaming. Oh, yes, I got through coffee on him.

It wasn't some guy. It was Harry Smith. Harry Smith. I'm not familiar with who that is. As Davey Boy Smith's son. Okay. Actually, Jake Roberts was on a podcast such as this one, saying defamatory things about Davey boy,

his father who was deceased. Oh, naturally, you can imagine his displeasure. Of course, Harry Smith has got shoulders that big. Oh,

shit. Oh, yeah. He's a big dude, huh? Big, big and strong and fit and brave.

Oh, so he's lucky he just got a coffee thrown on. I'm not, you know, a haymaker. Jake the snake is one year younger than me.

I know you can't believe it. If you saw us together, as you know, I know, because he's... He's not aging quite as gracefully as you are. Well, he's done a...

Actually, he's the toughest guy in wrestling because he's been trying to commit suicide for 35 years, and he's still alive. That's insane. Yeah, I still don't watch the documentary. A lot of my big wrestling fan friends have been telling me you got to watch the Jake the Snake documentary, and I still haven't done it. I need to do it.

The resurrection of Jake the Snake? Yeah. Yeah, you're going to say that Diamond Dallas Page is a saint, and I think he is. That's funny. WWE, so, like, I've never been a huge wrestling fan, a huge josephi. WWE fan in my childhood. Usually, if you're going to be a big WWE fan, that's going to start in your younger years.

Until recently, I have a really good friend of mine who brought me out to WrestleMania for the first time last year in New Orleans. And when I got there and I witnessed that show, just the being there and the energy in that stadium and all the lights and everything that goes into the production,

it's just, it's insane. I think it's a very misunderstood. Like the people of W, the fans of W.W. are very misunderstood. There's like an outside of stigma. People like make fun of them. They're weirdos. They're crazy or whatever. But it's actually just like they just love the art form of it. It's like people think, oh, they don't know

it's fake or they don't think it's fake or they think it's made up or these people are just insane. But no, they understand it. They love it because it's performance art, really. I can't knock success. And when you're following up the Superdome in New Orleans and every dome thereafter.

Yeah. You know, like I said, New Japan didn't have an empty seat. Vince doesn't have an empty seat either. Right. Definitely not. I was fucking blown away by that show. They put asses in shares. They do. And there's nothing fake about that. Captain Luabano

told me the only two things real in wrestling, the money and the miles. You can't fake jumping off those ropes. Well, the money is not fake and the miles aren't fake. Right. You know, you got a long, you know, I had to go to Tokyo Narita Airport.

Whoa, that was a long, long, arduous journey. Many times I thought, you know, I'm a non-drug guy, but if somebody had a Xanax, I might want to taste it. Yeah. Just to get the edge off. And the traveling that those guys had to do, like a lot of those guys have to do,

to keep up with their shows. Not just now, but in the 80s and the 90s. It's incredible. Can't believe I did it, but I survived it all, and I'm very, very grateful to everything. Who the hell is this? This is the Soundman decides to show up halfway through. Hello. Hello, Soundman.

wearing his heart, huh? Clean, showered up, but I ran late at work. So when, so how old were you when you actually got started in the wrestling business? 18. You're 18. And how, why did you get into it? I didn't want to be a welfare recipient or concrete. So, I mean, so how, explain to me how you got into it or?

My father is a wrestler. Okay. That made it easier because I didn't have to pay somebody. Right, right. To teach me. And sometimes they take more money than they're worth. Mm-hmm. although Jay Lethal has a school and he's great.

So his is, you know, but he's got a good school. Right, right. You know, so anyway, that's about the size of that. I got, when your dad's a wrestler and he allows it, you know, you get to follow in his footsteps, which was turned out to be a blessing for me and my brother. Right. And who was into it first? You were your brother?

Well, I'm two years younger. I was. I was born in 54. he was born in 52. And I got into professional wrestling in 1973, but in 1971, when he graduated high school, he was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals and released by the St. Louis Cardinals two years later

and then signed with the Cincinnati Reds organization and got released, and then signed with the Chicago White Sox and then finally got released. So four years later, he's into wrestling in 1975, and then in 1985, he makes his debut in Matter of, Besson Square Garden.

So baseball's lost is wrestling's gain. That's such a crazy story. Is there any other WWE superstars that have transitioned from like another professional sport into wrestling besides UFC? Let me think. Not that I know of, I don't think there is.

Well, there's a lot of professional football players that have gone into wrestling. Is there really? Yeah, Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Oh, remember him? No, I don't. He was in the Atlanta Falcons. Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

You know who that is? He's a guy with a two-by-four. Sounds familiar. Okay. And the American flag. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. I know how that is now.

Tough guy. Yeah. And he's still alive. And he's one of the few people that's married to his original wife and has two beautiful daughters. And so when you say that most wrestlers fritter away their lives, you can count Tito Santana, Rick Martell, Axel, Exxol, Jim Duggan, as people that kept the original wife. and are living a happily ever after life. Yeah. Do you keep in touch with any of these guys still? I see them once in a while.

Yeah. Mainly keeps yourself, though. I'm a very lonely man. Some people like being lonely, though. Some people like you. Some people are just too smart to be surrounded by other people. I'm a sociable hermit. When the time comes, I can be sociable, pinky up with the drinks.

Yeah. And when the time comes, I like to, two words, I'm never going to say again, yes, dear. I was married 12 years. Wow, you were in one marriage. I was in one marriage and divorce. And now I have one daughter and I have no wife and I have one grandson and I'm training him to call me abuelo and might be another abuelo coming up.

We'll see. Wow. Exciting. Yes, it's exciting if you're easily excited. That's cool, man. If somebody shoots one past the goalie, everybody's a grandpa eventually. Eventually. That's true.

No, it's quite a... I'm very excited about it. I make light of it, but it's about the biggest thing I've got going. Yeah. And how did you get started in authoring books? You're a poet. I'm a poet, yes. How did that come about?

And was that before or after wrestling? or was that just always there? When I was in the fifth grade, there was a beautiful, beautiful teacher. She probably doesn't want me to say her name, but her name was Patricia R. R. R. R. Rufanak, who became Mrs. Mokal. And she says, Lanny, that paper you wrote,

how I spent my summer vacation, and the other one, tell me a little bit about yourself. They were just wonderful. I think you could be a writer. and Casey and the Sunshine Band wasn't out yet but I said, but the baby, you ain't seen nothing yet. Here's something you'll never will forget. And then I started wrestling and starting incorporating poetry into the wrestling

in the, but not in the WWF or WWE. You know, I wasn't there yet. And I met a guy that kind of changed my life. And his name, Shell Silverstein. Oh, yeah. Do you know? The missing piece. Where the sidewalk ends?

Light in the attic. What's the one with the tree? The giving tree. The giving tree, yeah. And he also wrote some songs, a boy named Sue for Johnny Cash. You ever hear it? Okay. Can you sing it for us?

Twist my arm. Well, my daddy left home when I was three. He didn't leave much to Maugh and me, except this old guitar on an empty bottle of boo. Well, I don't blame him that he run and hid, but the meanest thing that he ever did is before he left, he went and called me Sue. He named me Sue. Well, he must have thought that it was quite a joke

and it got a lot of laughs from lots of folk. It seems I had to fight my whole life through. Well, some gal had giggle and I'd get red, and some guy's laughing, I'd bust his head. I tell you, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue. Anyway, it goes on and on, and it has a real nice ending. So you can look it up when you get home. Okay.

Yeah, or look it up on your phone, whatever. Wow. I'm just telling you, and another song, the unicorn song, I bet you've never heard the unicorns. No. There were green alligators and long negeese. Some Humpty Bat camels and chimpanzees. Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure does you're born.

The loveliest of all was the unicorn. So that's an Irish jig. Yeah. And, um, show Silverstein also did cartoons for Playboy magazine. Oh, really? And he did his own illustrations. It was a cartoonist.

Yeah. You go on YouTube, you look up the Giving Tree. You don't have to get the book. They just, it's animated in front of you. And it's a hell of a book with a big moral of the story. Yeah. You're the sound man. He's a sound man.

I noticed you shut off the air conditioner so there wouldn't be a humming. Yeah, well, actually, we never really touched the air conditioning in here. It's never usually that loud. It's a little hot, but that's okay. Oh, is it too hot? I'm sorry. I won't bitch. I'll be fine.

You saw my sauna, right? I saw your sauna. It's the infrared sauna. Uh-huh. Now, I just got a brand new shower in the sauna room, not in the sauna, you know, in the bathroom, in the other bathroom. Yeah. Had a new sauna, and, man, it's got one of those big, uh, showerheads? Like a rainforest.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's great. That's all. How often do you use your sauna? Every day. Do you really? Every day that I'm home.

Yeah. Are we still on the air? We're still recording. Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Let's not waste any of this great banter. No, no, this is great banter. I love this.

What were we talking about just a minute ago for? You were asking me to sing three more songs. Oh, was I really? Oh, you were. Yeah, yeah. The Giving Tree. The Giving Tree was the last one that you were telling us about. You also, you wrote a book or a series of poems about smoking cigarettes, right?

Yes. What inspired that? When my daughter was being born, I read an article that if the child does not smoke in school, they will have a big self-image, and they will also avoid the four nightmares of youth, the five nightmares of youth. And those nightmares are, number one, bad grades. Number two, dropping out of school. number three, drugs slash alcohol. Number four, teenage pregnancy. Number five, teenage suicide.

So I don't know if that's true, but according to this article, if you can teach your kids to stand up to peer pressure and not smoke, they will also do a good job standing up to peer pressure with everything else. Okay, so it's mainly about peer pressure, or standing up to peer pressure,

not so much smoking? Well, that's, yeah, Yeah, but it's smoking, but it's also peer pressure. Okay. You know, because how does smoking always start? Well, everybody's doing it. And if you just, so, you know, the thing is the reason I don't look like I'm 64 is because I didn't do things everybody did. Otherwise, I looked like everybody.

Yeah. You know, I've been to a couple of class reunions and holy, you know, some of these people need to have. That's a, it's a consistent thing with not just you, but also. Jimmy Hart claims that he's never once in his life had a sip of alcohol, never had a hit a weed, nothing. And I find that really hard to believe going through the 80s and the 90s in the wrestling business. It's crazy to me. Well, Jimmy Hart never lies, okay? And not only did he get through the 80s and 90s, let me tell you what else he did with Drug Free.

He had a hit record in 1964. Keep on dancing. Oh, keep on dancing. Keep on dancing. Keep on doing the jerk. Yeah. Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby. Yeah.

Let me. We had it. He sung it on the podcast here. Do the locomotion. Okay, but the thing is, if he didn't do drugs with Sunny and Cher, and he didn't do drugs with Dick Clark, he's not going to do drugs because he got through the music business. Right. Without doing drugs. Right.

So he spent time with Elvis, crazy stories he had to tell us. Oh, he's from Memphis. Right. And so was Jimmy Hart. Right. And I'll tell you what. Jimmy Hart is a plus. in my book, A-plus.

In fact, macho man wouldn't have been the macho man without Jimmy Hart. Really? You can tell him, I said so.

Why is that? Ask him. He knows. I want you to tell me, though, because you're here right now. Jimmy Hart opened the door for macho man, Randy Savage in Memphis

and went out on a limb for him. And then he went to New York to the Vince McMahon and went out of a limb for him again. And in both cases, Randy would ask, you have any room for my little brother? And that's how I got it there.

No way. But if it wasn't for Jimmy Hart, none of these wonderful things would have happened. And you can tell Jimmy Hart for me that I love him very much and that I am not going to forget how nice he was to me and my family. I'll tell him.

He's going to watch this, so he'll see it. Jimmy, I love you, baby. And don't forget the policeman is your friend. We love you. baby. Love you, baby. Love you, baby. That's crazy.

I didn't know that he helped get you in. Did you do Jimmy Hertz laugh? I can't get it the high pitch like he has. Yeah. Wizard of Oz laugh. Yeah, yeah. Am I pretty? That guy's a character.

Jimmy Hart never told a lie in his life. Yeah. Not to me. Not to anybody. Man, there's nobody I met that's quite like Jimmy Hart. He's a guy. And you never will. No, I definitely never will.

Nobody ever has a bad thing to say about. No, nobody, not anybody. Well, let's talk bad about Jimmy Hart. No, we don't want to do that. Jimmy? No, that's a good thing because you don't always meet a lot of people like that. You don't meet anybody like Jimmy Hart. No.

But I'm willing to play the devil's advocate and make stuff up about Jimmy Hart. That's right. But, I mean, you don't even meet people where everybody only has good stuff to say about him. You know, it's rare. He's a rare human for sure. But he's amazing. Well, sometimes people talk badly about that. me. I don't believe it. I've never heard a bad thing about you. What's the worst thing somebody said

about you? Bad things about Lanny. Hmm. Let's put it this way. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness. How's that? I like it. Do you understand it? It's all fun until the rabbit's got the gun. It's all fun until the rabbit's got the gun, yes. But if you're persecuted for righteousness, it's like, I believe be yourself or be by yourself. If you guys want to do drugs, you can do drugs. I won't narc you out, but I won't hang around either. Yeah. So indefinitely, that group of people, I wasn't popular.

However, very few of them are still alive. Right. Because if you do what they do, you'll be where there be. They're not going to live... See, in 36 years, I'm going to be 100. Then again, I might get whacked out. leaving the studio. So, you know, there's a lot.

That won't happen, I promise. You ever see that movie, Seth McFarland, a million ways to die in the West? I briefly saw it, yeah. Yeah. On Netflix. I recommend it. Yeah.

It's great. Seth MacFarland is the man. Yeah. It's like a parody of that Quentin Tarantino movie. What is it? Kill Bill? No. Hateful, yeah.

It's kind of like a, a comedy version of that. I don't know if you've ever seen The Hathlet. Hayfellate's got some comedy. It's pretty funny. I think that's his most recent movie. Quentin Tarantino. Now he's doing a Charles Manson movie.

You know who was calling me just now? Who was it? Martha. Do you know who Martha is? No, who's Martha? She has a business totally clean. She comes in and removes dust from my house. Oh, yeah?

And she does the floors. She does the windows. and, you know, she does it for free. No, for business. For fee. Yeah. For not for free. For a small fee.

For a fee. For a fee. For a little tip. For a little tip. Yeah. For a small fee. For a small. What is NATO?

I don't know. I don't know. North Atlantic Treaty. No, I'm sorry. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Hmm. When I hear the president's Washington Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Jackson Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Philmore, Pierce, Buchanan,

Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, George W Bush, Obama, Trump. Who's your favorite of all the presidents? Trump. Why is that? No, Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln?

Yes. I reached out the camera. What's that? Good choice. Yes, I would like to do now a poem that I wrote for Abraham Lincoln. Okay. That used to hang in the library, the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois. Really?

I don't know if it still does because they got this brand new museum. And my friend that put it up there, Tom Schwartz, that graduated with me in. high school, Downers Grove North, 1973, got a PhD in diplomatic history, thank you very much, and he became the Lincoln Answer Man, and he's got a career about Lincoln. Now he's gone on to Herbert Hoover. So anyway, he failed at everything he tried, but always tried and tried again. And when he failed, he tried and tried some more. His persistence saved our country from a time of desperation pitting brother versus brother in a war. But when he won his victory, He used the healing power of love, not malice, but with charity for all.

He brought the self up off her knees and gave her back her dignity. We've never had a president so tall. He's a city in Nebraska. He's a tunnel in New York, a memorial in Washington, D.C. You can see him at Mount Rushmore and the penny in the five and the pages from a time in history. Born in Hageville, Kentucky, made his name in Illinois, but an actor's bullet blew it all away. mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord and the man who lived to save the USA. That's good.

That was beautiful. Oh, thank you. You're a man of many talents, Landy. Yeah, you are. Yes, I had a little three by five card run out. Just in case somebody asked for it. But Lincoln was, you know, I'm from Illinois, so he was the, we're the land of Lincoln. We got on a license plate.

Yep. Going back to like the early days of wrestling, what was, what would you say your biggest match was? Or like what moment in your WWE career put you on the map, would you say? There's only one man smart enough to put Hulk Hogan down. A genius has a devastating plan. You're looking at the future world wrestling federation who appeals to the modern thinking fan. When I emerge victorious with gold around my waist, I shall be the most plendiferous of all. Don't tell me Halk is 6'8 and I'm just 6 foot 2.

Between the ears, I'm over 10 feet tall. He wants to wrap his 24-inch pythons around my neck and give his famous, What You're Gonna Do? By the power of the genius and the world's smartest man, I'll rely on my incredible IQ. So that was... I remember that. You do?

That was before the match, right? You recorded that. That was like your press conference. There was NBC. Saturday night's main event. Yep. And Hulk Hogan, he did that for me. And that's why if you want me to get, I'll tell you, I will never talk bad about...

So that was you versus Hulk Hogan. I will never talk bad about Jimmy Hart, Hulk Hogan. And there's only a few others on that list. Otherwise, we're going to talk bad about people. Wow. I don't know. I don't get the vibe that you talk bad about anybody. I talked bad about the dead.

Okay. So what was that match like when you were going into it? Because if that was your biggest, the biggest match that you ever had, like, what was it like going, like, leading up to that and, like, getting ready to go into it? Like, did you and Hulk talk beforehand and planning any kind of, like, anything out at all? Or did you guys just kind of, like, play it by ear? How did it go?

Okay. If you go to the website, geniuslani pafo.com. That's genius, lanipafo.com. You'll see what I'm most proud of in my life. It's going to be my speech for the Hall of Fawful. fame inducting my brother against his wishes, but I inducted him into the Hall of Fame because I became the older brother when I turned 59. And then I thought to myself, Star Trek, the needs of the many, I'll weigh the needs of the few or the one. And I've got millions of macho man fans and only one

macho man. And I said, I got to induct him into the Hall of Fame before it's too late. It's too late already because he's not there to give one final. Ooh, yeah. But at least I can do this and then I can die a happy man in knowing that I did what was right instead of what was required of me. Okay, because sometimes you have to be bold, and sometimes you have to do what's right and not popular. Yeah.

Okay, so anyway, unpopular decisions, that's what the older brother gets to do. And when I became 59, I became the older brother. See, I'm not really an alpha male. But with nobody around for competition, I become the alpha male. The beta male becomes the alpha male. One eye is king in the valley of the blind. So anyway, in that you will find some of my videos of my happiest, most memorable matches. And that is...

When you do in the Hall of Fame induction? In the front page of my website, you will find the speech, okay, with the genie Poffel inducting his brother into the Hall of Fame. Right. In 2015, 2015, 2015. Okay, and then and then

if you go into videos, you'll see my match against Hulk Hogan and a couple of other things that I'm very proud of. My appearance on Regis Philbin, that was a good day. What'd you do with him? Mr. Perfect and I were on the Regis Philbin show,

following my victory over Hulk Hogan. Okay. So it was a great day for me. That's awesome. And I've had a few moments, you know, a couple of highlights. Yeah. And then, of course, fame if you win it comes and goes in a minute. So these things mean only something special to me.

But you know what? Just like a fat girl on prom night, I was glad to have a date for the dance. That's great. That's funny. Yeah, so on my way, when I was on my way back from New Orleans last year, I was on the same plane as a couple guys that worked at Vice. And they actually said they were going, they were only reason that they were in Clearwater, they flew from New Orleans to Clearwater, was to meet up with you and do some filming with you. And they were telling the story about, see, I don't even know the details of about the story of the guy in Puerto Rico. Or was it, was it Puerto Rico that got murdered?

Yes. You're talking about Bruiser Brody, Frank Goodish. Okay. Bruiser Brody was the guy who got murdered, right? And the man that murdered him is the invader, who was a masked man. And underneath his mask, Jose Gonzalez is his name. And he never did a day in jail because they got rid of the knife, no weapon. They cremated the body without permission.

So he got no knife. No murder weapon, no body. And Puerto Rico is its own little mafia. Mm-hmm. You know, and they just said it was self-defense. Right. And this guy was 6'5, and he was a real scary guy. And that's true.

Really? Oh, have you seen his pictures? No. Oh, you better look at his picture. Okay. Yeah. And I'll just pull it up. I'll tell you what, you know, I wasn't there, and I'm glad I wasn't.

But, um, Brewzer Brody, could be a bully in the ring. Yes, we have bullies in the ring. Sometimes there's bullies. Yeah. And what do you mean by that? Like, how can you be a bully in the ring? Well, you can be a bully in life, right? Right. I could bully you right now. Right. Or could, you know, in high school, they push you against them. Like, he would just hit you harder or, okay. Hit you harder. Okay. Take advantage of you. Right. You know, call you names. Yeah. Whatever. Rough you up a little. There's no, you know, the wrestling ring is the only place. where you can legally commit murder.

But this was done in Bayamone, Puerto Rico, in the shower at the ballpark. And, you know, he had a, he covered up. Was this after a match? No, before. Okay. And Bruiser Brody was all excited because he was going to buy in to the business. He was going to buy into the promotion, okay? And Nick Boppingo said something that he died.

he's a very dear friend of mine. I just thought of this. When we got the news, Nick didn't like him at all. So he says, well, I just cut him out of the program, which is kind of a bad joke. Too soon? Too soon? Well, you know, I guess it was, what, 1987, 1986? So it's not, 1988, maybe.

I don't know. I don't remember. You know, it was one of those. So it was in the shower. It was in the shower, and it's a horrible, horrible. thing. Plus, they let him lay there for 45 minutes before the ambulance came up. You know, and I don't know if they were slowing that. You see what I mean? So he died of the infection later on that day. I mean, the next morning. He didn't make it through the night. Why did the guy stab him? Like I said, he was a bully. Oh, he just, he just encounters with him, didn't like him,

and just decided he's going to kill him. This guy was about five foot six. Brody was six foot six and um they had wrestled before and brodie wouldn't mind calling you a midget and roughing you up you know and some people don't like that you can yeah you got under his skin a little bit he's had it up to here you know um you know what puerto rican boxing gloves are no knives it's a joke but you know wow it's the way it is there they and you know they have uh stabbings there like hundreds every day yeah and they have guns too, but mostly knives. That's so crazy.

Did he actually admit to killing him, to stabbing him? He admitted it was self-defense. Okay, yeah, he admitted it with self-defense, right? And so the Puerto Rican country, or they just, the law, they just rode it off basically, a self-defense. Kangaroo court. Yeah, they never pursued it. They have some power there.

Yeah. It's not your island. It's not your turf. And he was from there, right? Wouldn't you rather fight me on your home turf? Yeah, of course. You're going to go to my house and do it. You know what I mean?

You know, I might have an advantage of my house that you don't... Right, right. Yeah, it's always a home field advantage. It's not a nice story, but nothing is worse. What a horrible accident. Owen Hart in Kansas City, he fell from the... He was doing a stunt where he was going to lower himself into the ring. And something broke, and he fell to his death about five stories.

Jesus. Isn't that horrible? And what a nice person. What a nice man. And he wasn't a... bully. So you could say karma, but not the other guy. Yeah. Right. Why, why does so, it seems like so many WWE wrestlers live right here in this area, like in Tampa, Florida. Why is that? Because they're smart. This is a great place to live.

You have to go everywhere else to know how great this place is. Yeah. I mean, they've all done a lot of traveling, so they have a good place to compare it to. And where I moved, I was in, I was in Indian Rocks Beach. Yeah. And when my mom passed away, I moved to Clearwater because I wanted to be walking distance to Whole Foods and walking distance to crunch fitness. So can you imagine? And plus all the wonderful places in between, the mall and everything. So 10 years from now, I may not be driving 10 years from now. I won't have to because everything's here.

Walking distance. Yeah, you can't beat that. You can't beat it, not even with an egg beater. Yeah, it's insane. Like even like Luke the Bushwhacker, a guy I've never even heard of until I met the guy. You know what I mean? Like Hulk lives here.

He runs the gym on Clearwater Beach. That guy's crazy. Jimmy. Hulk. Even like the guys that are currently big now, like John Cena and Dave Battista, all those guys live here. This is a fantastic place to live,

I'm telling you. Plus it's got a hell of an airport and a real nice small airport too, the Clearwater St. Pete Airport. Yeah. Yeah, I go there to visit my daughter. You know, two hours to Lexington nonstop, you know, Allegiant Airlines. Right.

Yeah, that's what I fly. You know, it's a little, it's cheap. It's no frills at all. I mean, you know, plus they only fly like once a week, you know, but you got to work with their schedule. Right, right. But if you go American Airlines, you got to go to Charlotte and take a left, or you got to go to Delta, Atlanta, and then keep going.

You know, it's like who needs to fly? when you can do it in one. Right. Right, right. And cheaply. Yeah. Which is an adverb that modifies a verb. Some people would just say cheap, but it's cheaply.

See, I don't make grammatical errors. I talk good. Gooder than most. I tell you that. Gooder than most, yeah. You think you'll do any more rhyme, Limerick books? No, I don't think so, but I will... One of the...

Do you follow baseball at all? I've seen a couple of baseball documentaries. I know about who Ryan Howard is, just because I know the guy who just bought his house. Yeah. That's about as far as I go. How about you? Do you?

No, not really. I mean, I just follow what I see on the highlights of ESPN and stuff for baseball. Well, that's a great way because then you could avoid the scratching and the spitting and go right to the action. Basically, all I've seen lately is, who is it Bryce Harper's new huge super contract, like the highest paid athlete or whatever.

Speaking of money, they offered me $2,000 about 20 years ago to Bay. They. The MLB? They. Whoever they are. They said, would you come to Miami and do a poem introducing Ted Williams? I said, okay, but if it's any more money than that, I won't pay you.

See the humor there? Okay, so I said, now if you've never heard of Ted Williams, my goal is for you to know all about him when I'm done with this poem. Okay. through all of the magnificence that is Jorabi Stadium, the Marlins and the Dolphins happy home. It gives me pride to introduce a man who was to baseball what Romulus and Riemus wore to Rome. Take 95 until you hit the Massachusetts turnpike.

Get off at Fenway Park and there you are. We're back in 1941, this man hit 406, and even now Ted Williams has no power. America anticipated every turn at bat to watch him knock the ball to smithereens. 521 home runs are even more incredible because he gave five years to the Marines. The boys who wrote the sports page never did him any favors, but for Cooperstown, they had to tell the truth. That theater Samuel Williams brought a splendor to the game, reminiscent of the late George Herman Ruth. And he grabs me and hugs me and starts crying, and he says,

if I'd have had you for a press agent, I'd have never had any problems. So then he's on my flight back to Tampa because he lives in Crystal River where he's an expert fisherman. And so I didn't have a cell phone back then. Nobody did. I'd never seen a cell phone back then. What year is this? I think it was about 92.

Okay. So I called my mommy and daddy and I said, look, Ted Williams is on my flight. You need to come here. and he said he would meet you because he's checked a bag in. So he's got to wait by the carousel. So I get off the plane first. I get my dad. We wait by the escalator coming down.

And there I introduce him to Ted Williams. And the only thing, of course, my father died in March 4th, 2010, and Ted Williams died July 5th, 2002. I wish I had a cell phone so I could get a picture of it. But just like they say in Titanic, he exists now only in my memory. But it's nice to, I wish I had a picture to show you. But I do remember it,

and it meant more to me to introduce Ted Williams to my father than it did to meet him himself. Yeah, that's beautiful, Annie. Thank you. It's a beautiful thing. I'm a beautiful man. You are a beautiful man. Yes.

when we did that video, I think it was about a year ago we did that video with you, I helped you record a submission for America's Got Talent. Is that what it was? I've tried three times so far nothing. But hopefully ever after. So you sent them the video that I shot at the Camelot? Yeah, they didn't love me.

They didn't love you. Next time I'm going to dress up in a tuxedo and do everybody. love somebody sometimes why why america's got talent why did what made you want to do that because i fell in love with one of the girls on there laura breton okay i see oh my god she was she's an opposite she's trying to put the moves on her no no no she's underage and but i still but you can still love someone what's under age she's under 18 she's let me see she was listen i'm not weird everybody loves her everybody. Laura Bratton, look her up. And I believe she was just turning 14 then. I think she's about 18 now.

Okay. But I've never met her. But everybody loves this girl because she's got it. She's got the voice. Oh, she's saying Nesmdorma, you know, in a lot of opera tunes. She speaks to Romania. She won. Romania's got talent. And she made the finals in America's got talent. But trust me, there was no. better than her before or since. Really? She has it. So she inspired you to try to go on the show? Well, that's the reason I love the show is because of her. You know, there's been other great acts.

Yeah. But I enjoy it. So the thing is, I gave myself permission to fail. I did not give myself permission to not try. Right. And in 36 years, I'll be 100. So I plan to live hopefully ever after. You got to try as many things as you can.

You never know what will work for you. If you feel the desire, you know, the minute, It's not fun anymore. I'm going to quit. You know, it's not like if I feel like, like, for example, I believe the quitting is a good thing. You know, it's like hitting your head in the head with a hammer. It feels so good when you quit. Yeah.

You know, so not everything. Quitting is important. I do not agree with that. Knowing when to quit is important. It's good at no one to quit. Like, if I try to leave this room through the wall, I should quit doing that and try the door. There's a big exit sign. You know, you've got to read the sign.

Yeah. Are you excited for WrestleMania to come to Tampa? Oh, if you're easily excited, I suppose. Has WrestleMania ever been in Tampa before? I don't think it has. Never. Never, right? But it's been in Miami and Orlando several times. Right, which is surprising has ever been in Tampa because this is like the hub of wrestlers. This is where they all live. So there's not going to be. So Vince is going to save a lot of money on travel.

If the price is right, I'll be there tonight. If the price is right, there's a price for anything, Lanny. That's right. I'm a whore. we're all horrors at some level Are you a horror? I'm a horror. Yeah, you remember, I bet you don't know Andrew

with Deis Clay, right? Yeah, we actually saw him in Clearwater a few months back when he was here. About three months ago he was here. Little boy blue. He needed the money. Oh!

Yeah, he did that when we were there too. Jack and Jill went up the hill each with a dollar and a quarter. Yeah. Jill came back with $2.50. Oh! Yeah, he was one of the kind for sure. The show was pretty wild.

A couple women walked out about that way through. Oh, yeah, there were women walking out left and right there. Yeah. Did you know that they closed all the two-story whorehouses in Texas? Why? Too much fucking overhead. Man, I need little. I went to school with Bill Ludwig.

Who's that? From the drums. Yes. Ludwig drums? Yes. Wow. In college? Downrose Grove, Illinois, high school.

I didn't go to college. Okay. Too smart for college. Oh, of course. I should have known that. You should have known that. I should have. That's why I'm not in debt up to my eyeballs.

Yep. And all these people with their big debts, and they're all, what are the gender studies and English degrees? What is that? You know what I mean? Can't get a job. Yeah. It's like.

It's crazy. It's crazy. It really is. I know so many people that are just, they owe so much money, and they still, they're not even working in the same industry they studied. Most people I know. It's crazy. It is.

What do you think could fix that or how could that be fixed? Brain transplant. Brain transplants? See, sometimes suicide is recommended. I'd say you've got a bad start. You better just start over. Start over. Yeah, just squeeze that trigger.

Time to go. It's the American dream, though. It's American dream. You got to go to college. It's the American nightmare. Have a family by a house. Listen, come on, Lanny. I've never met a teacher smarter than me except in the fifth grade.

the teacher that taught you told you to be a writer or a poet if you're going to train a dog what's the first rule uh i don't know my dog is not very well trained he still pisses in the house if you're gonna train a dog the first rule you have to know more than the dog okay that's a good rule if i run into it problem that's that's my problem if i run into a teacher that knows more than me i'll sit there for for 45 minutes or whatever it takes see what i mean but no they don't know more than me because they lead lives of quiet desperation themselves. Yes. And they don't love the kids. Don't think they love the kids. No, they're in the union. And guess what?

They've been having sex with their students for years, but all of a sudden, the truth is coming out. Oh, it's... Oh, big time, Florida. They're actually just talking about it on the radio on the way here. It happens in Florida and 49 other states. Yeah, but it seems like it happens a lot here. Yes, and it's not just the Catholic Church.

Yeah. It's everybody. Yeah. You know, and, yes. Robert Kraft just got busted for getting a hand job in Miami. Who? Robert Kraft, the guy who owns the Patriots. He was in Jupiter, Florida, getting...

Yeah, got a handy or something. Well, he got the massage with the happy ending. It wasn't just the handy. Is that... What's that? I said it was the massage and then just a happy ending, apparently. He's 112 years old. It must have been a small deposit.

Yeah. I mean, they said that the place has been under investigation for, like a really long time. A couple years. And they just decided to bust Robert Kraft just when he goes in there to go. Of course they didn't. That's a victimless crime. That's a victimless crime.

It should be legal. Right. Prostitution? Yes. I agree. I agree with that. It's the oldest profession, right? Drug should be legal.

Prostitution should be legal. You think all drugs should be legal? Yes. Even cocaine. Yes. Lany for president, 22. Hey, I. You just got my vote.

No, I, You just worked your ass off in the concrete. Right. Who am I to tell you you can't do something if you want? Right, I agree. You pay for it, you do it. And if I'm going to pay for the massage and the happy end, what's the problem? Right.

There's nobody that got hurt because the power of choice is yours. This is a free country. If you want to throw your life away, it's not my fault. It's yours. But if you want to do it, who am I to say you can't? So what I mean? The one thing about that. But if you came over to my house and doing something,

that's when I object. But they say some of those girls are sold in the sex slave industry or whatever. Well, if it's legal, it'll be regulated more. True. Yeah. And the thing is, you can't stop it because it's there. Well, yeah, and plus if it was legal, it'd be a lot safer. It wouldn't be a seedy, like dirty, back alley places.

They wouldn't have to hide from it. You know, people wouldn't have to hide from it. and it's illegal to have sex, or it's only illegal if you pay for it. So you can do it, there just can't be any money exchange. It just doesn't make sense. And then... It doesn't make sense at all.

But if you turn a camera on and film it, then it's legal, because then you're making a porno. There you go. Porn stars get paid to have sex. That's right. So if you just roll a camera, it's legal. You ever hear of a snuff movie? A what movie?

Snuff movie? No. That's when they'd, like, kill people, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's It's something I didn't know And I wish I hadn't learned

Yeah But that's like, whoa People were, hey, you want to be in a movie? Yeah, sure What could happen? I hear there's a lot of that goes on In the upper echelon Rich people in Hollywood

And shit like that Oh, people are jaded, you know? They've done it all, seen it all Mm-hmm All that know And then they want to do more, you know I read an article about Who's a guy that made fear and loathing

That's a crazy one? Crazy. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the movie, the really wild. I didn't see it. Oh, God. I can't think of the thing. But I heard he was involved in some stuff like that with Johnny Depp, too. There was like an article I read. It's a free country or it's supposed to be.

Yeah. And I choose to be drug-free. But if you want to take all the money that you made in concrete and enjoy it, that's your choice. And I am not, unless you touch me, we don't have a problem. Mm-hmm. I like that personality. We need more of that in this country. You think Donald Trump will do any of that stuff? I'm sorry?

Do you think Donald Trump will do any of that, make prostitution or drugs, any kind of drugs legal? Do you think he'll, on a second term, do you think he'll try to make marijuana federally legal? I don't think so, but... It'll get there eventually anyway. But I'm very big time against socialism. And, you know, that's like the left has lurched far to the left. See, I've been to socialist countries. It's like a mausoleum.

Okay? And they're talking about how great Sweden is. Hey, I wrestled in Stockholm, and I also wrestled in Zurich, Switzerland. No comparison. In Zurich, they have capitalism, and things are booming. What do you mean no comparison? What, in particular, what was different to you? It's depressing in Sweden.

Believe me, it's depressing. Right. Because you can see, you can, I don't have to tell you the rich part of town, right? You got two eyes. Well, Zurich is a very vibrant, rich place. And Sweden looks a little depressed. And the people have, see, when socialism comes, the businesses don't want to do business because they have to pay it in taxes. Yeah.

And the people don't want to work because why should I? You see what I mean? They're going to pay me to not work. So you're taking the incentive away from the worker and the entrepreneur. You know, and they demonize making a profit. Right. So I'm a big fan of Donald Trump because look at the economy. Now you've got very bad citizens that are hoping the economy tanks.

Like who's that guy, Bill Maher? he actually, he says, oh, I'm rooting for a recession. Well, he makes a couple million dollars a year. He doesn't care if somebody suffers in a recession. The poor will always suffer more than anybody. Because they rich are recession proof. He's actually hoping for a recession so Trump doesn't get put in. Trump is peace and prosperity so far, two years of peace and prosperity.

And they just found out that there was no collusion. Ha-ha. So what I mean? So all that fake news. How about that? The fake news. How about that? But how do you know which one's real? Because there was no collusion. But how do you know?

You don't know. Right. But since I am the genius. He is a genius. So you know. I know that they are leaning to the left. And if anything good happens, they don't mention it. If anything bad happens, they either invent it or mention it.

So they're not good actors. and they don't love you. Yeah. I don't trust anything, any of those stations tell me. Yeah. But one thing is for, it's for sure.

They're all talking about Donald Trump 24-7. Mm-hmm. Yes. And they're all making a lot more money because of that. That's true. And guess what?

After the, after the news came out, there was no collusion, Fox News ratings went skyrocketing, and CNN and MSNBC, you know, they got egg on their face. They got a whole omelet on their face.

but they're pivoting now and making it. Yeah, but. Well, that's what a kid says. Well, yeah, but. You see what I mean? If I'm your kid, but everybody's doing it. Yeah.

Listen, the greatest plan ever devised is capitalism. And there's risk in it and there's reward. So anyway, some people, socialism is OPM, other people's money, and sooner or later you're going to run out of it. So read a book by Anne Rand, the Fountainhead. It's a good book, and she came from communist Russia, and she knew all about collectivism. And she was very, very happy to be in the United States,

because there was a huge difference. I'm going to give you some words of wisdom. I didn't write this. There's a guy named Carl Sandberg, and he says, this old anvil laughs at so many broken hammers. In other words, a lot of people may try to cut you down, but this old anvil laughs, okay?

All right. In other words, that's my idea of toughness. To do what you want to do, do the right thing, do the thing that's best for you, and don't worry about criticism or rejection. See what I mean? You got to knock on a few doors. You've got to break a few eggs.

But in this world, you want to be fulfilled. You know, like you take Vince McMahon, the promoter of WWE, he didn't have success in one day. He had success daily, success daily. However, listen to this. Just like Alexander the Great, he cried. You know why he cried? Because there are no more worlds left to conquer.

he had conquered everything. So he cried. So I wonder if Vince McMahon wants to start the XFL football because he's got no more worlds to conquer and he's just, he's done everything. He's... In the wrestling world. He's done everything.

And now he wants to do this, because I guess 10 years ago he failed in football. Is he trying to do that again? Yeah. He is. And Trump was involved in it back then too, right? He had a team in New Jersey. Yeah.

And he had Herschel Walker. And Herschel Walker campaigned for him. him. Okay. You know, there's a lot of people that knew him before he had the audacity to put an R next to his name. Everybody used to love him, you know, in New York when he had a D next to his name. Then he put an R next to his name, all of a sudden he's a racist. See what I mean? In other words, here's the deal. Because he was always Democrat. Is that what you're saying? That he's always been a Democrat? In New York City, if you're not a Democrat, they'll run you over. Right. Okay. But anyway, it's just very, very difficult to be the president. But

hoping that he fails is very un-American. Right, of course. No, Mar is very, I didn't like it when Rush Limbaugh did it to Obama, and I don't like this. Right. In other words, and I'll tell you something, too. I'm 64 years old, you've got to listen to me. I've done some good things in my life and some bad.

I've been some smart things and some not-so-smart things. I've done some regrettable things. I've done some things I were proud of. And it never had any, it never had any, thing to do with who was in Washington, D.C., a Republican or a Democrat. In other words, my mistakes were my mistakes. My good things were my good things. Nobody, because they were there, affected my life here.

So, in other words, just do your thing and do your best and forget the rest. That's my advice. The genius has spoken. You may not like it, but you. You must accept it because I'm the man. I love it. Thank you so much, Lanny. That's been awesome, man.

Thank you. Thanks, man.