Insight with Chris Van Vliet - WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather Is An Absolute Legend

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Charles Wright is better known as The Godfather (@thegodfather). He is a WWE Hall of Famer and also performed under the names Papa Shango, Kama Mustafa and The Goodfather with Right to Censor. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas to talk about his legendary career, his friendship with The Undertaker, being discovered working as a bartender at a strip club, having his first wrestling match against Jerry "The King" Lawler, his time in the faction "Right to Censor" with Ivory, Stevie Richards, Val Venis and Bull Buchanan, being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and much more! This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. Get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D and 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase at: http://athleticgreens.com/insight If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Oh, man! Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Welcome back inside the Blue Wire Studios at the Win Las Vegas. Such an honor, such a privilege to be joined by the man you may know as Papa Shango, the man you may know as Kama, the man you definitely know as the WWE Hall of Famer,

The Godfather, and it's just so good to sit down. Spend some time with Charles Wright, who is just such a fun-loving guy, very much like the godfather character. Snap a screenshot. Share this on social media. Let us know that you're on this journey with us. Tag him at The Godfather on Instagram. Tag me at Chris Van Fleet.

And if it's your first time here, please take a second to follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to the show. And if it's Spotify, please take an extra second. if you could to leave a five-star rating on the show because it just goes so far to help the show grow. And the show has grown so much since we started in 2019. And here we are now in 22, 300 plus episodes in the books. And we are just getting started. Our fan of the week is Nelly Fresh 1994 who says, love this podcast. I've said this before and I'll say it again, is phenomenal at his job.

I want to go on the record to say he's one of the goats in podcasting. Definitely an inspiration if you want to get into podcasting yourself. My girlfriend got me mics for Christmas and can't wait to get these things set up and start my own. We had COVID over Christmas,

but now we're all clear. She's pregnant with our first child. Sorry for the long review, but I can't express how much I love this podcast. Well, first of all, Nelly Fresh, 1994. Thank you for leaving the review. congratulations on the pregnancy. Congratulations on being a future father.

Congratulations on getting the gear to start your podcast. Now it's time, my friend. Now it's time to just start. I've been saying this for a while, but just start. I read a review on every single episode. So if you have Apple podcast, if you have an iPhone, leave a few words on there, leave a few emojis, and I will shout you out.

I ask for nothing in return. So just leave a review and we'll shout you out. And that'll be it. All right, let's get that. to this. It's so good. Welcome inside the Blue Wire Studios at the Wind Las Vegas. Welcome the legendary, the

Godfather. Does this mean I've officially come aboard the Ho-Train? Man, you are a member. You're a member. I am so glad that we're able to do this in person. I've been wanting to reach out to you, but the fact that you live in Vegas, our studios in Vegas, we're making

it happen now. It's an honor to be on the show, man. I've been looking for it all day, and that's no bull. I've been looking forward to doing this all day. Dude, the honor is all mine. I'm so glad we're able to share this conversation. And like, this is just awesome. How long have you been in Vegas, by the way?

I moved to Vegas in 1984. Oh, man. Yeah. I was born the year before that. Can you believe that? I just got out of college. Wow. Playing football at UNR.

And I moved down here. I'm from Northern California. A big stretch there in Northern California to hear. What I think is so amazing. about your story is you've you've been so many different people right you've always been charles but you've been so many different characters i'm so curious which was the character you have pitched that you went that thing is going to absolutely work and maybe it didn't it didn't or it did either way uh the one that did was godfather and when that was pitched to you were you like it was not pitched to me oh

brother it was not you know who came up with it who my wife my wife you should be a pimp It wasn't that I should be a pimp. It was she was more like, if you could let people see what you're really like, and you're not a voodoo man, you're not an ultimate fighter, you're not a nation member, but just be who you are. She goes, we were sitting on something there. And she came up with, though, I didn't want to be a pimp. Dude, I used to own a part owner of a club here in Vegas called Cheetahs that we sold three years ago.

I hated pimps. so I didn't want to be a pimp. And then everything that she asked me to do that I didn't want to do that I ended up doing, it worked. The Godfather was never pitched to me. Me and my wife came up with it on our own. At the time I'm in the nation of domination, they're building the rock.

Okay, so me and DeLo Brown, who also lives here in Vegas, me and DeLo Brown are just walking to the ring with the rock, and when it's time for Stone Cold or Undertaker to give them their finish, we're feeding in for it. we were doing. Yeah. And so my contract was coming up, and I'm like, I got to come up with something different, you know, because WWE, I'm still under contract with them today.

And they've been always so cool with me. So we developed this character. I started growing my hair, and it kind of just took off. And literally, I was wrestling Bradshaw, and I'm Kama, Mustafa, and he's Bradshaw or whoever the hell he is. Yeah. And do you know what a popcorn match is? That's the match after intermission for people that don't know.

Yeah. They go get their popcorn. And so it's the match that don't matter. Or the bathroom break. Yeah. The match that nobody cares about. Get the people who get, spend their money. Yeah.

And so we're beating the hell out of each other for 10, 12 minutes. And then one day I said, Johnny, let's try something. And so we went to the agent who was Jack Lance at the time. And we go, Jack, let's try something. Jack's cool. Let's try it. And so I went out there with no girls. And I went out there and told John and just basically said, people,

I'm just going to say it, I'm a pimp. And see how you just laugh? Yeah. They laughed. Mind you, me and John are going 10, 12 minutes a night. And people are sitting on their hands. They don't care. And so just that little, I'm a pimp, we get a reaction.

I'm like, well, I said, but what you don't know is right here in Cleveland, Ohio, you got some of the best holes ever. See how you're laughing? What's this whole character? I love it. And it's just, now I have no girls with me. I'm just me. And so I go through the whole thing and I offer John the girls instead of fighting me.

I have no girls. I'm saying in the back, in a limo, I'm using that type of thing. And so he ends up taking the, and I'm like, listen, take the hose. I can't say hose, can I? Sure, of course. You can say, take the hose. Well, these days, I do. Take the hose.

And so the people would start chanting. Take the hose. Take the hose. And now, mind you, like I said, no reaction before. Now we got the whole stadium going, take the hose. Take the hose. So John takes the hose. Yeah.

He leaves. And, of course, now I grab the mic and start peeling on them. Stupid red necks. And just another, you know, so they start booing me. John turns around, comes back. referee buzzes me, I turn around, he hits me with that clothesline, one, two, three. I jump up, hat, and everything still on, because I was addressing basically how I'll address now. And I would say, man, pimping ain't easy.

And the place would pop. Man. We did it two times on the road. And when we got the TV, Vince called me into the office. He says, Charles, we might be on to something here. So you hadn't even pitched this to Vince yet? No. No.

you were still a nation of domination member? Yeah, and I was coming. And then the next interview I did on my own because Rocky used to do all the talking. Of course. I said, hey, Rock, call me the godfather. He's like, what? I'm like, just call me the godfather.

He goes, all right. And he goes, my man, here, the godfather. And once he did that, everybody started calling me the godfather. Once again, nothing to do with the WWE. Wow. And then Vince came to me. And mind you, I'm known to know my way around a strip club or two. Let's just say that.

When I came here in 84, I worked at the crazy horse here on Paradise. Most people don't even remember that place. I've been to the crazy horse too. I went to a bachelor party there. I worked there too. Of course you did. The guy that owned the crazy horse before I start working there was named Spalachro, and he had his head cut off and found in the desert.

So that's what I started working here at 84. That's what I stepped into. And now it's off the track because I didn't think of these cheetahs. But what were we saying? So if you were most like the Godfather and you knew that he was going to get over the most, rank your other characters for me from most over to least over in your opinion. In my opinion, Godfather by far is the most over. Then I would go with Papa Shango, comma, in the nation of domination.

comma, the supreme fighting machine, and last, and very least, the good father. I hated that. I hated that. When they told you, and we're kind of jumping all over the place here, but I'm just so curious, when they told you that you were going to join Right to Censor and become the Goodfather, did you think they were joking? I knew it was coming because that's when Vince went public. He was answering to people.

We went from cable to network, and they were cutting out the DX and the suck it and the tip in the puppies and this and that. And they were after me. You have this black guy calling girls' holes, talking about Pippin'Aid easy, and telling people to smoke weed. Okay. Between you and Valvinas, like, I think there were a lot of issues there. You know, we were a tag team for a minute.

Of course. Supply and demand. Those were the days. When I think the people now don't realize that right to sensor was RTC against the PTC and like basically like really taking a stand of like we don't believe what you guys stand. Right. Stand for. Yeah.

And I hated it. I hated it. And I was going to, soon as I, as soon as they told me what I was doing, that's why you'd see me come and go all the time. I always had the strip clubs here in Vegas. So always had a means of making money. And so when I was not having fun and not making money, I would leave. And I would go to Vince and say, hey, Vince, man, I'm just, it's time to go. And he would just laugh and say, okay, Charles, we'll call you the year or so if you want to come back.

And that's how that would go, you know. But, you know, I always get sidetracked. I smoke a lot. But talking about that Godfather's story, I mean, that is such a story about getting yourself over, like believing in what. you had in mind and just running with it no matter what my wife's idea i tell people all i did was the the silliness and and the talking and that's my part my wife had the outfits made the vests jackets she had a jeweler making it's jewelry we had an airbrusher painting the the back of our vest the front of our vest i mean it was crazy it was i was just doing what she said just

out there be yourself. And what you see right here is the godfather. And it's Charles Wright and the godfather are one and the same. Did you think at any point in time that this was a Hall of Fame character? Depends how you look at it. Yeah, okay. Money-wise, yes. Sure.

I mean, even though that was a mid-card character, it was over like a top character. Yeah. And it sold a lot of merchandise. It still sells merchandise. and I still have, when I go to these sightings, there's still lines of people there wanting to see the godfather, which I think is cool, bro. I mean, because I developed that, me and my wife,

and we developed it just being ourselves. Well, also, you bring it. Like, even still, you bring it. Like, look at this smile on your face right now. And I've been to enough autograph signings to know that there's a certain generation of wrestlers who don't really want to be there. and they're crumagony and they're difficult to speak with.

And like, you just have this positive attitude that just oozes out of you. That's not a bad thing. I always, I tell my wife, I'm no millionaire, trillionaire, but I'm doing okay. And if I get to the point where I have to act like that and I can't be myself, I would never do it. I actually have a lot of fun doing them for the next four months. I think I'm booked every weekend. And I enjoy him. You know, I really do.

So at one point in The Godfather, did the hose get brought in? Because we've all heard the stories about, like, someone reaches out to the local strip club and basically says, we need some women to be on TV tonight. How the very first time when we were talking earlier, and Vince says, Charles, you think you can go get some girls? And I'm like, Vince, are you joking? You know, be a taker in strip clubs every night. You know, every strip club every girl. So I grabbed The Undertaker.

You know, I grab Bart, and we go down to a strip club. This is during the day, and we grab three or four girls, and we take them back with us to the WWE or F, whatever it was at the time. And they signed them to a thing. They pay them, and we take them on TV, and they don't ask me anything. They basically say, do what you do. And I basically went out there and did the same show I was doing with John. We did that.

but we did it with girls. And I swear to you, I went from walking through an airport where maybe some people would notice you and say, oh, there's that wrestler dude, to the next day coming the airport. People were like, Godfather, where's the hose?

Godfather, where's the hose? It got over from the very second. We put it on TV, brother. It was just over, you know, over. Walk me through. You're going into Strip Club in the middle of the day, you know, it's not that busy in the middle of day. You and The Undertaker, two larger-than-life personalities going in,

this pitch probably sounds like it's completely made up and it's not true at all. Well, more than likely we were probably there the night before. So they probably do who we were. Oh, you guys. My God, you just left here three hours ago, you know. They used to close a lot of strip clubs. They'd be at him, would stay there. I let it go with that.

But it wasn't hard. And here's the thing, after the very first time that we did it, it was such a hit with the people that Vince took it over. And then Bruce Pritchard, you know who Bruce Pritchard? Bruce Pritchard, of course, it was his job at first to get the girls. And he would just call a strip club and they would send girls. Yeah. And then it got over so fast that strip clubs would call the,

the WWE and say, hey, you're in Connecticut, you're wherever. We'd love to supply the girls. And they paid the girls good, too. And then what happened is the strip club girls were getting so crazy. With no help for me. They were getting so crazy and wild on TV that bitch is like, we need to back off of these strippers a little bit, right? So we start getting actresses.

Let me tell you something, brother. The actresses were worse than the strippers. They were worse than the strippers. I loved it, man. But just a good time, bro. You also had wrestlers that were coming up that were playing hose. You could go a lot of, I hate to say names, but a lot of the girls, like Lita. Yeah.

Lita was one of the hose. Yeah. There's a bunch of hers. Like, wasn't Victoria one of the hose? Victoria was one of the main hose. Yeah. It was because back then there wasn't the ladies division that they have now. Yeah.

And so there wasn't a lot of girls where they're like Lita to wrestle. And I know Lita regrets doing it. And she actually did it as a favor to my wife because she had nobody to wrestle with. And my wife kind of like asked her she'd go out there with us just to have somebody good looking. And that's why she did it. But it was, you know, I think it was just, the girls didn't have anybody to wrestle with and wanted to be on TV. So sometimes they were hosed for the night. When did you start to realize that the Godfather character just wasn't going to work

anymore in the way that like i guess going to network and like just the way that the world was kind of shifting when they said you can't be on saturday morning you can't be on sunday morning you can't be on monday night till after nine you can't say this you can't say you can't call the girl's hose you can't say pimping ain't easy you can't definitely can't tell people to roll a fatty for pimp daddy it's got like that and i swear to you Vince came to me one day and said Charles I'm fighting for you, brother. I'm fighting for you, but they were on me hard, and I knew they were. And I knew they were.

And so until that day that he called me to the office, he said, this is what we're going to do. And I just went, I'm not having fun no more. And so I told the wrong person that, you know what, I'm quitting. I'm out of here. And somebody told Vince that I was going to leave. So the next thing you know, me and Bull are tag team champions. And, I mean, I'm a little guy.

I'm not going to leave with the belt. So they kept me there a little bit longer. But as soon as they took those belts off of me, it was time for me to go. Was there some animosity that you had gone from this super over character, this baby face as the godfather, to now being the good father doing stuff you really didn't enjoy and you're getting mega heel heat?

My answer to all these questions is I hated it. And it was nobody's fault. Vince said, it was just hard. I know it's a work, but it was so hard all those years, being yourself, not a character. You're going out at TV and just being yourself and they're having fun and you're making money

and then all of a sudden they take it away from you. And I remember being in the office with bits. If it's like, okay, we're going to do this. We're going to do that. And I'm like, so I, no more hose? And he goes, no more hose. And I'm like, so really, no more hose? I said it like four times.

He goes, no more hose. And I'm like, and I'm about a pimp? He goes, no, you're not, I mean, I was like, well, I don't want to do this no more then, you know. But it was time. And then they tried to bring him back later in life as an escort and this. Yeah, what were we calling the hose later on? What were they? They were escorts or something.

Escort or maybe just girls, maybe? I think it was not an, it was something. I don't remember. I heard in another interview you said that you took a lot of this out on Stephen Richards or Stevie Richards. Oh, oh yeah. Yeah, I did. But, I mean, no fault of his own. None of his. I haven't seen him since then. But if I ever see him, I'm not a bully.

Believe me, I'm not a bully, but I wasn't nice to him. And I took it out on, yeah, I was in a bad place. I was at a real bad place, man. And I blamed him. With the amount of conventions you're doing, signings you're doing, appearances you're doing, your paths are going to cross eventually. Oh, hey, I'm sure he's heard the story about me. I think he was in the...

We can FaceTime him after if you want. I have his number. He probably does it. He might have just thought I was a dickhead, you know? I don't know. But I'm not normally, but I was mean to him. I remember one time Shane was doing an interview. I think it had to do what Adam.

Chandler was in it and Sandler was in it. And Shane was directing it. And Stevie Ray was supposed to smack me. And I told her, I'd like, you smacked me. You know, I told him what I'd go do to him if he smacked me. And so he wouldn't slap me. He wouldn't slap me. And Shane kept getting so bad at him, but he never slapped me, man.

But it was stuff like that. I took it out on him, and it was not his fault. It was just, I had to blame somebody, so I blamed Stevie. Man. You mentioned earlier that you were managing Cheetahs. You're not anymore. When did you realize that chapter of your life was over? when the club sold three years ago.

Okay. And I put that money in the bank and I'm like, I'm done. Bad. It's almost like you could see the future because strip clubs were not a great thing in 2020 if you were still running on. No, no, no. The business has changed a lot. The businesses, you know, young people have changed and so is the business.

And it was time for me to get out. And I'm happy. Had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure you did. I'm happy I survived it. It surprises nobody when they find out that they find out that. The Godfather was managing cheetahs in Las Vegas. Not only was the godfather managing a strip club,

the godfather was managing a strip club in Las Vegas. Yeah. Oh, boy. Oh my God. What do you think is the biggest thing you learned about people from spending so much time in strip clubs? I learned. There's a lot of assholes out there.

How about that? A lot of drunk assholes. What I learned, I don't know if I've learned anything from people. You definitely see a different side of people, though. Yeah, but I mean, over these years, you always see the bad side of people and they're drunk, so you can't take down on them. It's just the business that I don't care for anymore. I don't know of any good that I've seen from it.

Besides making some money, I don't see anything good from it. Yeah. Well, I think you make a lot of money. The women that work there make a lot of money. I always heard a joke that the difference between a server at a strip club and a stripper at a strip club was two weeks. Is that pretty accurate? If you don't know how true that is,

you have no idea how true that is, because you get a good-looking waitress, and she'd make a couple hundred dollars, two, three-hundred dollars, and then the girl that she was talking to all night made two grand, so yeah, I would be like, you ain't, we ain't gonna have her long wing.

And if you don't let them dance, they'll just go someplace else and dance. And she's going, man, I guess I could do it, right? Like, do you have to convince the, did you, were you probably the hiring process? I was, I was never, people think I was a bouncer. I was never a bouncer. I started off as a bartender, manager, part owner, general manager. I used, when I was at Cheetahs, I mean, at the end of my wrestling clear, I was still general manager of Cheetahs, you know, so.

Were you part, like, were you the one to do the interviews? No, no, I didn't, I never did that. But was this where you were working when you got discovered or when someone was basically like, hey, you should get into wrestling? It wasn't a strip club? It was a strip club, but not that one. Okay. This was the crazy horse that was on Paradise. Okay.

And they were filming a movie called Over the Top. Of course, Sylvester Stallone. Yes, sir. Yeah. And a lot of those guys in that movie were wrestling extras or, you know, wrestling guys. Scott Norton was in it. Other guys. Well, they would, the MGM was right down the street.

They would come to my bar where I was bartender manager. And I was just a monster, bro. I mean, I'm not big like, I mean, I'm 60 years old now. You look great, by the way. Well, thank you. I'm trying. But back then, I was a monster. I was a big biker.

I was like a hard-for bike. And still had all the tattoos. Oh, I had all these from way back then. Yeah, okay. So they would come in. They're like, dude, you should become a wrestler. And I was exactly. This is exactly what I said.

I said, I want to do that phony-ass wrestling. You know, I used to watch roller derby. because in the Bay Area where I'm from in the 70s Roller Derby was much bigger than wrestling, much bigger than wrestling. So they're like, well, you hear of this guy named Bam Bam Bigelow? And I'm like, yeah, the dude with the tattoos all over his head. Yeah, he looks cool. They said, well, he made a million dollars last year.

And I went, what, wrestling? There's that type of money in wrestling? I swear to you, from that time right then, and they told me to make a call to this guy in New Jersey and go to this place called the Monster Factory. Within a couple years from that call, three at the most, I'm in the WWE. No way.

I was in wrestling school. It was a very short time. It was probably less, you're supposed to be there for months and months to learn. I might have been there two months. And the whole time I'm there, I'm hanging out in strip clubs, getting drunk, not going out,

I'm hanging out with the guy that runs the place. I think I actually went to a school three or four times. Jerry Lawler sees me. Mind you, I'm black, I'm tattooed, I'm big. And they're like, Jesus Christ, we can make some money with this kid. So not knowing anything, Jerry Lawler books me on a contract in Memphis to go through a program with him, my very first match ever. All I knew how to do was lock up with somebody and throw a kick.

That was basically all I got to do. That's only the days that I went there. That's what they were working on. And so I went to Memphis and Jerry Lawler just basically said, hey, kid, do what I tell you. Listen to me and we'll get through this. And my very first match ever was against him on a Monday night. Against Jerry Lawler.

Yes, and he put me over and I won the heavyweight title that night. My very first match. Very first match. And now you can realize, in hindsight, that this stuff never happens. You know? I was just different. I was different. I was different.

There was nobody like me. What do you think they saw in you? Oh, I'm a good athlete. My personality. I speak well. I don't know. I mean, everything you're looking for,

I'm basically it. You're also like a great salesman. Like, I know you're constantly selling yourself, but I think that's the key. Like, how could you not like this man? Plus, I'm not a bad guy. It's honest and,

real it's not a phony act you know yeah anybody that knows me out there say oh no he's just like that it might have to do that i smoke a lot too though even back then uh yeah i i i i tried cannabis and i'm cannabis hope we get into a little bit of that because cannabis is a very big part of my life when i was 27 years old i'm papashango i'm taking vikidans vicarophans placidels Perkissette, Somas, Halcyon, all right, drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels with that. But cannabis, I ain't trying that stuff. Well, I tried it for the first time at 27 years old, and I was like, whoa, my legs don't hurt as bad as I used to.

And I'm like, you know what? My arm, and you know what? Then we went and ate. And it was probably McDonald's or something. That was the best burger I ever had in my life. And back then I was a lot meaner than I am. now and it just kind of made me a nicer person. It made me more creative. It was a positive thing for me. Okay, so I always tell people, I tell you what marijuana is done for me. It might not do

that for you or somebody else, but for me, it got me off with them. I still drink. But I take no pain pills. I eat much better. I try to take care of myself and I just, I stay positive. How close do you think we are to having weed legalized all across the country? Five years. Really? My call's five years. It's coming. So when you came in here earlier, you said your knees are really banged up. Yeah. You're actually going to get double knee replacement surgery.

Yes. How much pain do you think you'd be in if it wasn't for marijuana? I would be a mess, seriously. I would be on pain pills. I would be drinking more. I'd be on pain pills. The CBDs and all that stuff, it really does work for me, you know. But I do have a large.

intake. How large are we talking? I smoke a lot. I mean, I smoke a lot. Do you smoke more than RVD? Yes. Wow. That's a mic drop moment right there. I smoke a lot. I don't, I didn't think anyone on the face of the planet smoked more than him. I smoke a lot. And do you think you smoke more than Snoop? Snoop's a, I don't know. I don't know much Snoop smokes. I mean, I think he smoked months. I'm more of a dabber. Okay. I don't know if you know what that is. I do. Yeah. But I'm dabbing more most of the time. I probably

go through, I shouldn't I spoke a lot. It's okay. You can say it. I probably go through three, four grams a day. A week of concentrates. Probably an ounce of weed.

Wow. That's about it. That's about it. But that's most, I do a lot of bong rips. I don't When I get up in the morning, every morning, I told you I get up really early in the morning. And every morning I roll up a big old fat joint with a funky feel tip, a Be Real funky field tip. And you're smoking your own strain? Yeah, most of the time. You know, I smoke others, but my strain's really good.

Feel free to plug it, too. My strain. I have with Be Real has Dr. Green Thumb dispensaries in California. I think there's seven of them all throughout California. I've done a collaboration with him where I've picked out my own strain and then was there through the growth and change, and we found one that I really liked, and it's called Insane Godfather. And it's illegal. It's legal in the dispensaries in California. It's called insane Godfather. I also have some pre-rolls coming out here in Nevada. I might be

smoked train or Godfather. I'm not sure, but I have some chocolate bars. I have a lot of stuff coming out. And of course, you know, I do my wrestling stuff. But I also do engagements where I speak to people about cannabis and what it's done for me. And there's a lot more to it than just getting high. But that's a benefit too. Yeah. So is that the biggest part of what you're doing in your business right now? Is.

Is marijuana? Oh, yes. By far. How much wrestling do you think you did while you were high? I'll say medicated. That's no say high. Well, I would say basically I've smoked. every day of my life since I was 27. So take it from there.

So you wake up every day like you said. Yes. Yeah. And then it's throughout the day too? Yes. Man, this is great. I function well on it, bro. I mean, clearly. If I told you right now, I'm pretty coherent, right? Absolutely. If I told you right now, I probably had 10 dabs, probably 10 bong hits and at least three joints today. But I've been up since 3 o'clock this morning, though. Would that seem excessive? That would kill most people? people. Not kill them, but you know what I mean. Incapacity.

Do I seem okay? You seem, yeah. Like I said, it works for me. There was another wrestler. I won't tell you his name on the air. I'll tell you afterwards that I couldn't believe how much he smoked. We were driving around the city and he was smoking. And I was just like, wow.

And he's still, you don't just perfectly coherent. As, you know, like I said, for pain also, bro, I've raced motorcycles, not motorcasses. but desert racing, like Desert 500, me and a couple buddies did that one time. Yeah. Football, basketball, fighting. I really think dirt bike riding tore up my knees more than anything. Because I was so big taking a beating.

And we're going through the desert, man, 70, 80 miles an hour and just, you know. But it's just, it's taking a beating. And it's time to get them done. When do you feel like you were officially retired? from wrestling. Yeah. It's been a while.

I mean, I don't think I've had a wrestling match since. It's probably been 20 years. Almost, I think. Yeah, I mean. But did you go into the last match going? No. This is going to be my last match? I went into the match.

I know. Something came up, but I probably went or said, Vince, it's time for me to go. And he said, okay, Charles. And then they finished me up. That's what I knew. Once they finished me up, so I think I had, like, they were paying me. I was just sitting at home. so they finished my contract up.

And once they do that, I knew I was done. And at that point, my knees were bad then, and that's 20 years ago. But I just feel like after the new knees, you would be a great Royal Rumble entrance. No. They tried to get me, but no. I couldn't do it right now.

For which Rumble? It's been a few years, but they'll call me because they always interested in me coming out, maybe come out first as comma with the haircut, you know yeah and then go back and come out as poppy shango bald yeah and then come back you throw it out and come back with godfather the girls at the end just like mick foley yeah they've talked about that but uh i think they have a problem with the girls now bringing their girls

out like that what if what if you were the godfather with the cane and the hat but without the the girls no that's godfather light man it's godfather without the hose come on man Go on. I guess it's Godfather 2020. I really moved on. I mean, the cannabis. I still do a lot of wrestling conventions and shows, but I don't wrestle.

I don't get in the ring. But it's cannabis. It's really all my attentions towards. How often do people want you to sign an autograph as someone other than the Godfather? Papashango. Depends. I mean, you'll have four or five different pictures in front of you.

You'll have comma. Papashango, Godfather, the nation of domination, good father. I mean, so it's mostly, it's mostly Godfather and a lot of Papashango. I remember growing up and seeing Papashango and being scared. I think a lot of people were scared of Papa Shango. Right. We were a kid. Of course.

I now look back and there were a lot of people that were not a fan of Papa Shango. And I was actually really surprised to find that out. You mean wrestlers or people? Wrestlers. Oh, yeah, they hated on me, man. Why? I was going to, it was like when the road warriors came in with the face paint and the muscles and stuff.

I was a gimmick. I was going to ruin wrestling, this and that, but I didn't care. And most of them, you know, they were, anyway, I didn't get into that. They probably would have messed with me more, but they weren't, they couldn't. I think when you put a spell on Ultimate Warrior, people were like, I just, I can't believe this. But they did. You did as a kid, didn't you? As a kid, absolutely.

I would have been nine, maybe 10 when that was happening. Right. And being scared and also being, man, I hope he doesn't put a spell on me. I used to tell kids, be careful when you go to sleep. You're not going to dream. I'd say, you're not going to dream of the ocean. You will dream of Papashango. And you will dream of death.

I'm terrified. Bro, you'd be surprised. Every now and then I paint up and I meet people your age, you're a little older, and you shake my hand. And you shake my hand. And they're like,

I know I've grown now, but you have no idea how you terrified me as a kid. Seriously? Yeah. They're like, dude, I'm still a little weird about you. You were not Charles for those 30 seconds. Papa Shango.

I think they went a little bit too far with the spells and stuff. But that's, like I said, I was going through a really bad divorce, and I wasn't in a really good place. An Undertaker was basically in Rikishi and Yoko Zuner and the Godwoods and Savio Vega. They were all babysitting me every night because I wasn't this jovial person you see in front of you right now. There's also this guy called the bear. The bear is not a nice person. That's another version of you?

Yeah, you'll hear Undertaker call me the bear a lot. I have my nickname. Probably more people know me in Vegas as bear than know me as Godfather. Do you still talk a lot to Undertaker? I talked to him a couple days ago. Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, we text.

Sure. Yeah, I mean, we all the time. Would he be one of your biggest mentors in the business? Of course, yes. Or Ron Simmons also. Sure. More Ron Simmons. It's because Ron Simmons was older and he had done it before us.

And me and tape were just really good friends. That did a lot of the same craziness together. What do you think is the biggest thing that Ron taught you? Business, business, how to get the most out of what you have. And realize that there can only be so many stone colds. There can only be so many rocks. There can only be so many undertakers. So you got to make the best with what they're allowing you to make the best with.

And that's what the Godfather did. I took what I could. I ran with it as far as I could. Yeah, I did an interview with Gangrel, who's a good friend of mine. Yes. Love that guy. He said something so insightful. He said that the reason the attitude era worked is because everybody had a storyline.

From the bottom of the card, all the way up to the rock and Stone Cold. The Undertaker. And I would have to think that that's a reason why the attitude error was so excited. Everybody had a storyline. That's true from the beginning of the car to the end. Everybody had a storyline and it involved the audience. And they don't do that no more. Why?

I don't know. It probably has to do it money. And he probably wants your top stars making the money the most. And I don't know. But everything changes. Yeah, I don't know either. Everything changes. I changed things.

You know, when I came out and they have. hated me so I don't hate on anybody. Yeah. I'm glad there's more places for wrestlers to go and make money and that's it. I'm not here to critique what they're doing today. I'm just, hey, whatever they're doing, it's what the people want than they do. Yeah. No, they wouldn't be doing it. Yeah.

Can you take me back to over the edge? Because I don't know if a lot of people remember this. You were supposed to face the Blue Blazer that. Yeah, yeah. At what point did you realize that something was wrong? Owen, man, I had spent that whole day with Owen was such a great dude, bro. I mean, when I went to Japan for the first time, I was in Japan for six months. Owen was there.

He taught me how to get to take the train, order food, get to the dojo. And I spent seven months in Germany. Owen was there. It taught me the same thing, how to get the transportation, order cabs. He's just a great dude. He was to come down the dews thing first, and I was supposed to come out with the girls. Yeah, from the ceiling. Yes, I was behind the curtain. I was doing my normal. Okay, girls, I had a normal speech because every now and then the girls would fall or trip and they would

feel embarrassed. So I would tell them, if you fall, this is what we're going to do. Don't worry. You can't do anything wrong. Whatever you do, I'll cover it. So just have fun. And I was going through that speech with him. I'm like, the most important thing is to be fun, you know, have fun. Don't worry about anything else. And then all of a sudden, whoever was over here, I want to say Bruce Richard said, Owen fell. And I'm like, Owen, Owen, oh, and what? They said, Owen just fell. And I'm like, Owen, I didn't register. I'm like, Owen fell for what? And then everything went down, you know. Wow. And then I seen him, then next time I seen him when they wheeled him through the curtain, you know, and I was just like, wow, it was just, I don't, my wife remembers

is more than me, because I guess I called her right after and told her everything. And I don't remember a lot of things I said so I was probably a little bit in shock yeah but good dude man it was just sad and like there was probably a lot of chaos but you were about to go out through the current your match now isn't happening how how how how how who made the call or do you remember who made the call to like all right god are charles your match isn't on well we're going to move on at that point you can't just you can't just put a match together like that with the girls and yeah is you're going to have to at least grip some of it yeah yeah I was just, I don't remember, to be honest.

Wasn't he supposed to win the title, the Inter-Corps title? Yes, he was going to win because they realized they put the title on me, but on me the title didn't mean anything because I had the girls. And so all the title was, was because I had such a show, it wasn't really a wrestling show, it was a Godfather show, right? Yeah. It had nothing to do with the wrestling part. It was the show before or after people wanted to see.

So the belt didn't mean anything. It was just something that the girls carried. out. We didn't put, it was nothing. So they were going to take it off of me and put it on Owen. And I don't recall. People in the comment section are going to kill me for this, but who did you then drop the title to? Um, I don't remember. Wow. I think, you know what? I think I dropped it to Jeff Jarrett in Memphis. Something like that. I think it was Jeff Jarrett. Wow. Yeah. what do you think is the thing that most people remember you for? Obviously, it's the godfather.

But what's the thing? Is it the match? Is it the promo? Is it what is it? I think it's just, it's going to be the godfather. Sure. It's going to be my personality. And it's going to be, you know, my body of work, man.

I mean, I was involved in so much stuff from Papa Shango and the warrior. Yep. Okay. To the nation of domination with the rock. Yeah. To the whole attitude era, to Godfather, I was always in the mix. Somewhere I was always in the mix. And so if you look at the body of work, man, you know, I thought you went back to the Hall of Fame.

I deserve it. Oh, absolutely. I have the body of work. I might not have been the most polished wrestler around, but I was a hell of an entertainer. And you were one of those characters that even if you just casually watched wrestling in the attitude era, everybody knew who you were. And that's not a bad thing. That's the best thing about it. Like, I think the best thing in wrestling is get over.

Right. Right. And you got over. It's not about how many matches you win. It's not how many titles you win. You're memorable. And the hardest thing, I'm going to shoot my own horn for a minute. Toot, too.

But the hardest thing is to get over without their help. Right. It's one thing when they were, they're trying to get you over compared to you just. I was, dude, I was, as Godfather, I was. never scripted ever. They didn't even ask me what I was going to say. And if I was wrestling you, we'd do the match, little, I mean, the thing is, is you'd have 10, 12 minutes.

It would take me six minutes to get the girls in, do my little spiel, get the girls out. So we'd have like 10 minutes to have a match. And then I would still have to get the girls back in the ring, win or lose to dance with the referee or dance with somebody. So it's just, just. It's hard.

It's just, I was having such a good time, bro. At what point did you know that The Rock was going to be a huge star? Vince, well, this isn't what a bit. I'll tell you, when Vince told us,

when they put me in the nation, I was supposed to, I was coming to TV. I had been off for a while, and I was coming back as Papa Shango. And it was going to be a more serious Papa Shango, not the spells and people throwing up. And it was going to be more wrestling.

And Jerry Lawler had did a, Jerry Lawler is an artist. I don't know if you know that. Yeah. He did my face paint, and we had a new character. And so we got the paint on and we take pictures and stuff.

They say, Vince wants to talk to you. And I'm like, what? Okay. So I go in there and talk to Vince and then says, Charles, change your plans. And he goes,

tonight we're going to put you in the nation of domination. We're going to call you Kamah Mustafa. You and Farooke are going to wrestle Undertaker in a handicap match and you're going to go over. And here we got you something to wear. That's how I became... Wow.

That's how I put in a nation. Now, mind you, I got there to be Pauvichanga. Yeah. And you know what I said? What? So I'd get paid the same, right? I said, that's all I said, okay, well, they're cool. And then I asked Ron Simmons, I'm like, you know what's going on?

And he didn't really know it was going on. And then, like, the next TV, Vince pulled us into the office. And he basically said, do you know this kid? I mean, like, yeah, yeah. And Ron knew him. I didn't know him that well. I'm like I knew of him. I think he was Rocky My V or something like that.

He goes, well, listen, I'm going to put him in the nation of domination. I'm going to bring this one in. I'm going to bring that one in. He goes, once I get people to hate this kid, he goes, when I turn him, he's going to be the biggest thing wrestling ever saw. And that's what he told me and Ron. He goes, this is what I need from you to. And then he kind of set up what we're going to do. And that's why I knew at the end of the godfather.

I knew that was the end of it because he already talked about it when I started the godfather. So, yeah, but he, I mean, yeah, he was a hell of an entertainer. It was fun building, you know, it was fun building that up with him at the beginning. Me, Dilo, Mark Henry, Ron. It was fun, especially, oh, my God, those guys. They were, like, younger than me, so they actually kicked me out of the car. You know that? They kicked me.

Who kicked you out of the car? I can't say Mark Henry for sure. I must say Dilo. and the rock kicked me out of the car. What'd you do? Like I said, I tend to smoke a lot. Okay. All right.

So I would tend to get in the car and smoke also. And so the rock came to me one day. He's like, hey, big dog, man, I can't ride with you no more. I mean, why don't you can't you ride with me no more? He goes, dude, everywhere I go, I smell like weed. He goes, I don't even smoke weed. He goes, and I tell him that. And they're like, okay, okay.

And they say next time they see me, they're like, dude, you told me you didn't smell like weed again. So he goes, I can't. I'm like, well, okay. So I think I jumped in with Ron and John, the Acolytes. And then Mark Henry, DeLo, and The Rock started riding together. Right. Yeah. I've interviewed The Rock a bunch of times.

He told me his most memorable promo of all time is when he turned on the fans, he's like, you know, when the fans were booing him, Rocky sucks. And he cut that promo who was like, the Rock's a lot of things. but sucks as in one of them. He told me that's the greatest promo because it was him finally, officially, becoming the rock and turning heel. He's done a great job, bro. He has.

I'm not mad at him at all. I'm glad, like I said, I was glad to be a part of the beat start of it, you know? Yeah, I'm glad to have been a part of this, this ride on the hoe train here. What's the best way people can connect with you or follow you or? I'm very active on Instagram.

I am the Godfather on Instagram. That's where you're, fire me most of the time just being silly a lot of smoking stuff it's really for fun uh on uh facebook on the wwee godfather and uh that's about all the social media i do but i'm really active on my instagram it's really up to date who's the most famous person you've smoked with that you can tell on that i can tell on there's not a lot of people that you can tell yeah yeah uh will and else. Oh, there you go. I don't know if it gets much bigger than then. Well, this interview stops. I'll tell you a couple more. I end every conversation with

the same question because I'm all about gratitude. And I can tell from the smile on your face that you are a very grateful man. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? My family, my life, and this is going to sound weird. My dog. My daughter. I love my dogs. What are your dog's names? We have Calisi, who is an all-white pit bull. We have Abigail McGillicuddy, who is a Brindle Pit Bull. And this is so sad.

I had to just put down my shango. His name was Shango. He was my boy for 14 years. I'm so sorry. And we put him down around six months ago. Wow. And I love that dog. But I think I'm about ready to get another boy.

But yeah, man. But we love our dogs. because now me and my wife are empty nesters for the first time. Dude, I don't know. If you ever come to my house, knock before you come in, because my old lady's fine as hell. And we both walk around naked. So I word all my friends, if you come over, knock before you come in.

Hey, we're empty nesters now, and the dogs ain't going to tell. Can you give me, can you slip into the Godfather here? Give us some advice or just some words or just, you know, cut a little promo or something. How about if we do this? It's time. Once again, for everybody to come aboard the Hoot train. Man, let me look around.

Is there any Pips up in this house? Well, to all y'all that know that the Godfather be Pippin'hose nationwide, man, I want you to roll a fatty for this PIP Daddy. Light that blown up and say, Pemit and Easy. Man, what an honor. Thank you.

Nothing but fun, brother. I appreciate you, man. There we go. Such an honor to have the godfather, Charles Wright, join us inside the Blue Wire Studios. So amazing hearing his stories, but the one thing that really sticks out for me

is that he's always chosen to do the things that were interesting to him. I mean, like he said, when things weren't fun for him in WWE anymore, he left. Yeah, I think that's really inspiring.

Let us know what stood out the most for you. Take a screenshot, tag us on social media. He's at The Godfather on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Vleet, and I'll leave you with something that I tweeted out last week that seemed to resonate with a lot of you based on all the retweets. So I'll leave it here as well. Just start. Even if you don't have every step figured out right now, it gets easier as you go.

Just start. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes.

So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. understand he's the spitfire of sports smack take advantage of but get up in here the jim rome show podcast what should be follow and listen on your favorite platform you've been warned